I Am Iron Man('s Daughter)
by Lynyrd Lionheart
Summary: Caroline Forbes was perfectly content leading her quiet life in Mystic Falls. But when your dad is Tony Stark, you end up getting caught up in the mayhem. For Caroline, it all started the day she got kidnapped.
1. I am Iron Man's Daughter

**AN: Welcome to my rather long TVD/Avengers crossover, posted here from Tumblr. As anyone who reads my TVD fic will expect, this is Caroline-centric. Please enjoy!**

**I Am Iron Man ('s Daughter)**

Caroline had adopted her mother's name rather than her father's simply because it was simpler than being known as Tony Stark's bastard daughter. The result of a one night stand between her sheriff mother and the billionaire, there were only a handful of people that knew of the connection between the Virginia beauty queen and the head of Stark Industries – those being Caroline herself, her mother, Tony, and Tony's assistant/company CEO Pepper Potts. When Caroline told her friends she was spending the summer with her father, they all assumed she meant Bill Forbes, when, in fact, she was referring to summers spent in New York or Malibu with her birth father.

She could still remember the way Elena and Bonnie had rolled their eyes when Caroline had been a wreck after finding out that Tony had gone missing in Afghanistan. They had told her it was ridiculous to be so focused on some celebrity crush, never knowing that Caroline was actually a wreck because her father had gone missing, and the last they had spoken she had been a drama queen and had told him she hated him.

For weeks, she had believed her father had died thinking she hated him.

Then Tony had miraculously risen from the ashes, torn and with shrapnel threatening his heart, but still alive. He had taken on the persona of Iron Man, and Caroline had simultaneously rolled her eyes and been ridiculously proud of him, because Tony Stark was actually growing up and maybe, someday, he'd actually be able to fill the role of father instead of summer time companion and bad influence. He had even begun to take steps towards doing that, mentioning on occasion that maybe it was time the world knew that he had a beautiful daughter he was insanely proud of, and would she maybe like to come to New York and go to one of Pepper's stupidly boring functions with him?

Then she had been turned into a vampire, and Caroline had been forced to break both their hearts by staging the mother of all arguments over something stupid and claiming she would never speak to him again.

Tony had tried to mend fences, calling her daily for three months, before those calls became bi-weekly, then weekly, and now she got the odd monthly call that she let Liz take, where he simply informed them he was still alive, and if Caroline would like, his invitation to New York was still open.

Pepper had called her repeatedly as well, at first, but Caroline was an excellent actress and every bit Tony Stark's daughter, and so the redhead had always ended the calls hanging up angrily, leaving Caroline to cry on the other end, because she just wanted her dad, and why did this have to happen to her? Just when she had been starting to actually have a dad, she'd been forced to let him go, because what kind of a horrible daughter would it make her to drag him right into the middle of the vampire dramatics that made up her life now.

Liz hadn't understood at first, confused as to why Caroline was pushing everyone away. Then she had discovered Caroline's blood-drinking secret and, once the smoke cleared, had been the one to sit next to her while she cried after each of those phone calls, hating that her daughter felt alienated from one parent, and knowing that their own relationship still left a lot to be desired.

But Caroline was nothing if not perseverant, and so she wiped away her tears, put on a bright smile, and proceeded to live her vampire life sans father. There was plenty to keep her distracted, with Elena being the Holy Grail of the supernatural world, and so a year passed. A year in which Caroline faced down doppelgangers and befriended a werewolf, and broke up with Matt and lost Stefan to Klaus. She watched her Dad announce himself as Iron Man and died a little inside every time he was almost killed (and hated Justin Hammer for the despicable douche-bag he was). Then another year passed, and Caroline learned to play the little blonde distraction for Klaus, she lost Tyler then gained him back, then lost him again, she was almost killed by her best friend, and she helped unleash hell on earth. But she survived. She graduated and had plans to go to college. She was finally moving onto the next phase of her life. Everything was finally coming together.

Then she got kidnapped.

XOVER

It was a balmy July evening and Caroline had spent it at the Grill with Elena on one of her rare Damon-free evenings. It had been fun, though the absence of Bonnie had been felt keenly. Thanks to their in with the bartender, they'd been able to down a few tequila shots, and Caroline was feeling just a little tipsy and a lot happy as she wandered home.

She would later blame her lack of observational skill on the alcohol.

One moment she was wandering down the side walk, the next she was staring down the shaft of an arrow into a pair of abnormally blue eyes.

"You're going to have to come with us, Miss Stark," said the owner of those blue eyes (and the arrow), a stalky man with sandy blonde hair dressed entirely in black.

"You have the wrong girl," Caroline replied, meeting the man's gaze head on and concentrating. "You want to put down the arrow and let me walk away."

The man's grip on the bow faltered, his eyes flickering between that odd electric blue and a paler shade. His brow furrowed, as though he were confused, but then the electric blue came back and his grip strengthened once more.

"How interesting" – Caroline jumped at the new voice and would have whirled around toward it, but a set of hands grabbed her upper arms in an incredibly strong grip and held her still, facing the man with the bow – "Barton, you never mentioned that Stark's daughter had a mind control ability all her own."

"I didn't know," the other man, Barton, replied in a monotone. "It's not in her file. She's supposed to be a cheerleader – empty headed for the daughter of a genius."

Caroline bared her teeth at the man at that. It was a common misconception people made; they saw the cheerleader, the bubbly blonde, and never looked past that. If they did, they would see perfect marks – quite the achievement when you considered she had a horrible attendance record – and a natural ability as a leader. But no one wanted to see that.

They just wanted to see the cheerleader.

"Well, I was worried you would bore me," the man at her back said leaning down so his face was next to hers. She couldn't see him clearly, but she managed to get a sense of strong cheekbones, an unhealthy pallor, and dark hair. "I do so love it when my toys turn out to be interesting."

"I'm not your toy," Caroline snarled back, flexing her arms in the man's grip. It was incredibly strong, but so was she. _And _she had the benefit of surprise.

Caroline stared into the eyes of the man with the bow, and then she closed her eyes, breathing in deep. She let the scent of blood waft into her nostrils, and then she opened herself to her instinct. She let her fangs fall and whirled, sending the man at her back flying. Then she was the man with the bow before he could loose his arrow, her fangs digging into his neck. She drank until she felt the man weaken, his heart beat slow, and then she dropped him – low on blood, but alive – before whirling back to the other man.

He wasn't there.

"_Very_ interesting."

He was at her back again, and Caroline spun once more, only to see nothing. She snarled and spun around, her eyes searching frantically for her would-be kidnapper. He appeared in front of her suddenly – his skin pale and unhealthy, his eyes glowing with a fevered light that Caroline recognized, and it made her take an uncomfortable step back.

Those were the eyes of someone who had been tortured. She knew, because she saw them in the mirror every morning before she put on her bright mask for the day, wiping away the nightmares and invisible scars with make-up and a persona that wasn't really her anymore, but that she still wore, because it was easier than facing those dark dreams.

"A monster," the man mused, taking a step toward her. "I wonder, does Stark know the kind of creature he produced?"

"You don't know _anything_," Caroline growled, and her hand came up, wiping the archer's blood away from her mouth. She hated to be called a monster, to be faced with the truth of her existence. "Who are you?"

"Who I am is of no matter, Daughter of the Man of Iron. What is of import is who _you_ are… and how you'll assist us in eliminating your father as a threat."

"Try it," Caroline replied, lifting her chin in defiance. "Try it and end up like _him_."

She nodded at the unconscious archer, and the dark haired man laughed.

"Oh, you foolish little monster. Barton is a useful tool, but he is not _powerful_. Not as I am, and you stand no chance."

The man disappeared once more and Caroline stiffened, eyes darting about for his reappearance. Even with her heightened senses, his arm wrapping around her from behind took her by surprise, and his strength was even greater than she realized, because he held her still with that one arm, his other hand coming up to run fingers sparking with green down her cheek.

And Caroline knew nothing but black.

XOVER

"His name is Agent," Tony said to Pepper when she spoke to Phil Coulson like he was an old friend and not the government spy who was ruining their moment.

Or at least twelve percent of a moment.

"Tony," Pepper scolded, and Tony would have replied with a sarcastic but charming comment if his mobile hadn't gone off. He wanted to curse, because why did everyone have to interrupt his time with Pepper, but bit it back when he saw the call display.

_Elizabeth Forbes_.

"Lizzy!" Tony greeted with false cheerfulness, because when the mother of his daughter called, Tony would always answer. Caroline may think he was the worst father ever, and maybe he was, but he loved that girl more than anything, even Pepper, and would never ignore anything that could have to do with her. Pepper looked at him with confusion, because she knew as well as he did how rare it was that he heard from Liz, and Coulson watched with polite curiosity. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Caroline is missing."

"What?" Tony responded, false cheer falling away to be replaced by very real worry. "What do you mean she's missing?"

"I mean that she went out with a friend and she hasn't returned. Elena said Caroline headed home three hours ago. It's a five minute walk to get home, Tony."

Tony felt a bit of relief. It was only three hours. Caroline was probably fine – she was very much his daughter, and had probably just wandered off with a boy, or met some other friends.

"Her boyfriend," Tony said. "She has one, right? You mentioned him… she likely snuck off. To have some time with him."

There was a long pause at that.

"Tyler isn't in the picture anymore," Liz said at last, and there was something in her voice that said Liz was hiding something.

"Liz, why are you so worried?" Tony demanded. "It's only been three hours… you shouldn't be this worried. Not yet."

"I… Caroline… she didn't want you to know, Tony. That's why she had that fight with you, because she wanted you safe from all of this. But Bill is dead, and so is Carol Lockwood, and I don't know who to turn to about this. Caroline isn't a normal girl."

"Of course she's not. She's my daughter; that means she's brilliant. But that doesn't answer my question."

"Look… let's just say that there's more in the world than what you know, and that Caroline got caught up in it. I'm worried that something got to her, something dangerous."

"Liz, you're not making any sense. What could have possibly gotten to Caroline?"

Horrific thoughts were running through Tony's mind. Caroline at the mercy of mutants, or one of the aliens that had turned up in New Mexico. Maybe one of Tony's own enemies had gotten to her. A dozen different scenarios ran through his mind, but none prepared him for the truth.

"She's a vampire, Tony. Caroline is a vampire, and I'm worried that someone who knows that has decided to hurt her."

XOVER

Caroline came to in what appeared to be the love child of a cave and high tech lab. She was in some sort of cage, but the dark haired man had obviously underestimated her, because all it took was a quick jerk of her wrist to break the lock and she was out.

There were several people bustling about the cave, but none of them paid any mind. Their eyes were the same electric blue as Barton's had been, and Caroline found it eerie and creepy. She was careful to keep a safe distance between herself and all of those people as she made her way to what she hoped was the exit.

She didn't get far before the dark haired man was next to her, an arm wrapped around her waist and directing her in the direction he wished her to go. He didn't speak to her, just gave her a condescending smirk, before releasing her when they reached Barton and a man dressed in plaid – a happy relief from all the black – who was studying a glowing cube the same shade as everyone's eyes.

"It's amazing," he said to the dark haired man. "It's knowledge. The things it has to say…"

"I know," the dark haired man agreed before turning to Barton. "What does it tell you?"

"The name of my next victim," Barton replied. His voice was still emotionless, but he gave Caroline a dirty look and she flashed her fangs at him, making him take a step back.

"You look good for someone drained of a third of their blood," she drawled out before licking her lips mockingly, doing her best to channel Damon Salvatore. "It was _delicious_."

"Now, pet," the dark haired man scolded, his hand wrapping around the back of her neck. "Don't antagonize the Agent. What do you need, Barton?"

"A distraction," he replied grabbing his bow and keeping one eye on Caroline – and eye filled with suspicion. "And an eyeball."

"You shall have them," the dark haired man promised, and Barton nodded.

"An eyeball?" Caroline repeated blankly. "Seriously, an _eyeball_? What kind of freaks are you people?"

She flashed away from the dark haired man's grip, positioning herself so her back was to the wall of the cave.

"Careful, Caroline Stark. I am Loki of Asgard, and you are a cockroach to me."

"Loki," Caroline repeated blankly staring at him. "As in the Norse God of chaos… or was it lies? Well, the one who was, like, prophesized to bring about the Apocalypse. That Loki?" Caroline felt her knees weaken and she leaned back against the wall and rolled her eyes towards the ceiling. "What even is my life?"

"You speak oddly, Stark," Loki replied coolly.

"She's a teenage girl," Barton said, as though that explained everything. Caroline supposed to him it likely did, but Loki just looked confused.

"It's Forbes," Caroline said softly, and both men turned to look at her, so she shrugged. "My name. It's not Caroline Stark. It's Caroline Forbes. I took my mom's name. I'm proud of that, and her, so use the right one."

"You are proud for such a little cockroach, pet," Loki stated picking up a glowing blue sceptre and stalking towards her slowly. Caroline locked her knees and straightened, refusing to be cowed by him. "I dislike that, so we'll fix it."

He pressed the sceptre to her heart and looked at her expectedly. Caroline just looked back at him, waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, she glanced down, then back up.

"Is that supposed to do something?"

Loki frowned and tapped the sceptre to her chest again, once again getting the response of nothing.

"That makes no sense," he hissed in frustration. "It usually works!"

"What usually – ugh!" she stared down at shock, because Loki had shoved the sceptre through her stomach. She looked up at Loki with shock and pain while Barton cursed.

"We needed her, to use against Stark," the archer pointed out as Loki removed the sceptre and Caroline fell to her knees.

"Her death will ruin him," Loki replied with a shrug. "He'll be rendered useless by sentiment while we… what?"

He looked down at Caroline with surprise, because she had begun to giggle, and then to laugh through the pained tears that had snuck out of her eyes. She fell back onto her butt and sat on the floor laughing, because the sceptre was supposed to control the minds of humans, only it hadn't worked on her.

Because she wasn't human.

"If you want to kill me," she said to Loki, struggling to her feet, while Barton and the man in plaid watched her with shock and Loki's surprise turned to interest, "you'll have to do better than that." She lifted her shirt slightly, revealing her stomach and the unmarred skin there. "I heal fast."

"Well… isn't that most intriguing?" Loki murmured, and Caroline suddenly felt uneasy as his eyes met hers. She had seen that look before, on Klaus' face at a ball, the night she got a picture with the message that started it all – _Thank-you for your honesty_. She gulped and took a step back from Loki, because she didn't need this. She didn't need another bad guy to think of her as anything more than Elena Gilbert's best friend. She had been there, done that, had the t-shirt.

Loki took another step toward her and reached out his sceptre, using it to raise her chin so she was forced to meet his gaze.

"_Most_ intriguing."

God, she was so screwed.

XOVER

Loki was arrogant. That became very clear to Caroline very quickly by the way he left her alone with the man in plaid – whose name she discovered was Eric Selvig.

"What exactly are you trying to accomplish?" Caroline asked him. She sat cross-legged on a box that was so at odds with the high-tech computers Selvig was using that it was almost laughable.

"It's a portal for Loki. The tesseract wish his army to be here."

Caroline was silent for a moment after that, watching Selvig type away. A portal. For aliens. Because vampires, werewolves, and witches were enough – oh no, now her life needed to be invaded by freaking _aliens_.

"What if something goes wrong?" Caroline asked slowly, a plan beginning to form in her mind. If Loki was going to leave her all alone with his little scientist, then she was going to take full advantage. She remembered how her compulsion had interfered with Loki's control. She hadn't been able to take over full control… but she didn't need to.

She just needed the power of suggestion.

"Nothing will go wrong. The Tesseract knows all," Selvig replied, smiling up at her. It was such a friendly smile, completely at odds with the man's actions, helping a madman invade the Earth. Caroline smiled back and joined him at the computer.

"Murphy's Law, Doctor. If it can go wrong, it will," she replied, her voice all friendly confidante. She tapped the screen over the Tesseract. "The Tesseract may know all, but it is _humans_ making this machine… and humans err" – she met Selvig's eyes with her own and began to infuse her words with compulsion – "a fail-safe is never a bad idea. Just in case a x goes in the wrong place, or gets mixed up with a y."

Selvig's eyes flickered and he frowned down at his plans.

"The Tesseract has given me such knowledge," he murmured. "Such knowledge."

"What are you whispering in Dr. Selvig's ear, my pet?" Loki drawled. He had changed out of his odd leather outfit and now wore a well-fitted suit with a scarf around his neck.

"Discussing Quantum Physics," Caroline replied with a fake smile. She knew it looked fake, but it was meant to be so; all part of the act – an act she had perfected with Klaus and now planned to utilize on Loki.

The Little Blonde Distraction.

"I'm going to University in the fall… assuming there is an university for me to attend," Caroline continued crossing her arms and giving him her best bitch head cheerleader look. "I don't know what my major is, so I'm planning on taking all the sciences. Why waste a chance to get a head start on my work and pick Dr. Selvig's mind, right?"

"Is this true, Selvig?" Loki asked the Doctor.

"She was asking about the portal," Selvig replied. "We hadn't had much of a chance to get to the details before you joined us."

"Is that so?" Loki asked, turning that arrogant smirk to Caroline. "Well, let's not discuss such sensitive matters with her in the future. My Pet is too curious. It could get her into trouble, and we wouldn't want that. You need to get changed."

"Changed?" Caroline repeated, raising a brow with confusion. "Why would I need to do that?"

"You will be accompanying me to a party in Germany. It's very classy. I'm sure Miss Mystic Falls will fit right in" – at her stricken look, Loki chuckled – "I got curious about my pet, and had Barton give me your file. How you kept your unique abilities from SHIELD I'm not quite sure, but I'm glad you did. It makes it more interesting. Now" – he waved his hand a gorgeous red dress appeared there. It was a halter top that showed more back than Caroline usually did, but if she was to play the blonde distraction, then she needed to dress the part – "change."

"I'm not going anywhere with you," Caroline replied arrogantly, looking down her nose at him. she knew not to give into easily; it would make him suspicious.

"Yes, my dear. You will. You will accompany me, and you won't try to run."

"Oh?" Caroline replied with a raised brow. "I'm sure I'll regret asking, but how do you plan on making that happen? I'm not the type to follow orders. I give them."

"Not this time, Pet," Loki replied, and the sceptre appeared in his hand once more. Caroline gulped, remembering how it felt to be impaled by it and she tensed. Loki noticed and smirked, inspecting the end of the sceptre. "The blood is all cleaned off, but if you're desperate, we can paint it red once more. Perhaps with your lovely mother's blood? What was her name… Elizabeth?"

When Caroline dropped fang and snarled at him, it was no act. Memories of Elena feeding on Liz, and her blood covered body after Silas' attack were still too fresh in Caroline's mind for her to accept a threat to Liz's safety. Loki raised a brow and rested the sceptre against Caroline's throat before holding out the dress.

"Sensitive spot?" he asked sardonically as Caroline took the dress out of his hands. "You should really avoid those. Change."

When Caroline rejoined Loki again forty-five minutes later she was dressed in the red dress and a pair of killer heels with her hair and makeup done to perfection.

"Beautiful," Loki murmured in approval, holding her shoulders and surveying her up and down. "Yes, you'll do quite well."

Caroline wanted to hiss at him, but she caught sight of Selvig's screen out of the corner of her eye. It held the logistics of Loki's sceptre on it, next to the plans for the portal, and seeing that gave her strength she needed to give Loki a blandly pleasant look.

"As you said,I _am_ Miss Mystic Falls."

XOVER

"We found him sir," one of the agents declared. Nick Fury joined him to look at the screen. There was Loki, walking into a party in Germany, a beautiful blonde dressed in red on his arm.

"Who is the girl with him?" Steve Rogers asked. "Another Asgardian?"

"No," said Coulson grimly, pulling out a phone. "That's Caroline Forbes."

"Who is Caroline Forbes?" Steve replied in confusion.

"That, Captain, is Tony Stark's daughter," Fury retorted before Coulson could say anything. "You had best suit up. This could get messy."

"Stark won't be happy," Coulson added. "He wanted to keep her out of this."

"He should be relieved," Fury replied, cracking his knuckles as he thought of the Iron Pain in His Ass. "This means she's not being held captive by one of his enemies. Keep her alive, Captain. Miss Forbes is quite possibly the only person alive Stark would die for. She gets hurt, none of us will hear the end of it."

"She's just a kid," Steve replied. "I'd protect her no matter who her father is."

Fury didn't reply as Steve rushed off to change, instead he watched Caroline Forbes where stood regally at Loki's side. She looked peaceful and serene, but Fury was a spy, and that meant he read people better than most. She might be serene on the outside, but the fire burning in her eyes?

That promised someone would burn in hell.

XOVER

"Is there a point to this?" Caroline demanded, looking longingly at the champagne being carted about the room. Loki must have caught the glance, because he grabbed two of the glasses from a passing waiter and handed her one. "This is technically illegal."

"That's what makes it fun, Pet," Loki replied, sipping his champagne. Caroline bristled at the name, but carefully hid it behind a calm expression, something she had mastered while hiding blood lust. She sipped her champagne as well and wished she could be anywhere else. "As to why we're here… well, you just stand here and look lovely. I must get Barton his eye."

"Wait a second" – Caroline reached out and grasped his arm when he moved to walk away – "you're kidding, right? He actually needs a freaking _eye_? That's disgusting. Like, seriously gross."

The orchestra began to play and Loki sighed, setting aside their glasses and pulling her into his arms, leading her around the dance floor. Caroline wanted to struggle out of his almost too tight hold, but her Miss Mystic training kicked in, refusing to allow her to make a scene in the middle of the dance floor.

"You do dance quite well," Loki mused.

"Miss Mystic Falls, remember?" Caroline replied haughtily. "Although I don't know what your excuse for being able to do this is. I didn't realize aliens got dance lessons."

"I was raised as a prince of Asgard," Loki responded, every bit as haughtily, his eyes flashing with ice. "I know the niceties of society."

"Really? So did you just skip out on the lesson about not invading other planets, or does that not count as a nicety amongst your society?"

"Careful, my Pet. You're sharp tongue amuses me, but that amusement could rapidly fade." His grip tightened further and Caroline fought back a wince, refusing to let him get a response from her.

"Back to the eye, then," she said through clenched teeth. "I stand by my previous statement – _ew_."

"The perfect little angel, then. Is killing against your morals, Miss Forbes? Such weakness, when you could have been magnificent."

"Killing is against most people's morals," Caroline replied tightly, but she felt like a hypocrite as she said the words. It wasn't that long ago, that she snapped a witch's neck, resulting in the death of elven others. Or the night she turned, when she drained a carnie dry. Her mother's deputies, killed in order to save the Salvatore brothers; yet another stain on her soul. And then there was Tyler's Hybrid friend, who had been sacrificed to save Elena. All deaths she'd played some part in.

"Morals are so plain, Caroline Forbes. They are not meant for beings such as you and I. Beings of power."

"Just because you're powerful doesn't give you the right to play God," Caroline snapped back, her eyes meeting his and holding.

"You forget, Caroline," Loki purred, using her name for the first time. "I _am_ a God."

He released his hold on her as the orchestra's song ended and strode away. Caroline remained behind on the dance floor, wondering how many of the people around her would become Loki's victims before the night was out.

XOVER

_His daughter was a vampire_.

Liz had dropped the bomb, and Tony had been gobsmacked. He still wasn't sure how he'd managed to hold himself together long enough to give Coulson some bullshit story about his daughter being kidnapped, likely by one of his enemies. But Liz had made it clear that he had to keep it secret, that there were people out there who would kill her for what she was.

Tony would never endanger Caroline, whether she be human, vampire, or sugar plum fairy, so SHIELD wouldn't hear of her secret, at least not from him. He had managed to calm himself, to even feel some relief, because this meant that his daughter didn't hate him, didn't think he was the worst parent to ever attempt parenting. No, she wanted to keep him safe, away from what she was, and that's why she'd fought him, why she had refused to speak to him. It had lightened Tony's heart – they could start again. He knew now, so there was no point in her holding him at a distance. They could be okay again. Then the second bomb dropped.

Caroline hadn't been kidnapped by one of his many enemies, but instead by _Loki_.

A freaking magical alien had his daughter.

But they had been sighted. They were in Germany, and now, so was Tony.

He'd had Jarvis hack into the SHIELD system so he could listen to a play by play of the fight through Romanov and Rogers when an alarming message came.

"Cap, watch your ba – holy crap, how did she do that?"

Tony didn't know what had happened, but he would bet money that the _she_ Romanov referred to was blonde haired and blue-eyed with a secret to keep. A secret that may very well now be in the open.

Tony ordered Jarvis to increase the thrusters.

XOVER

He'd used another glowy sceptre thing to get the eye. Judging by the man's screaming, it was a very painful process, but it wasn't nearly as gross as Caroline had expected.

It also caused mass chaos.

And now she stood just outside the doors of the opera house, watching as Loki ordered everyone to kneel. They did – all but one old man, who stood and stared him down defiantly. Caroline thought she might have to interfere, stop whatever Loki was going to do to him, but her interference was needed.

Captain America had come to save the day.

She had to admit, the fight was pretty freaking epic. She had heard stories of the super soldier, of course; her grandfather had even played a pretty major part in the creation of the serum that had… made him. She found herself slowly walking away from the building to get a better view. The super soldier was holding his own very well, until he wasn't.

Loki managed to get the upperhand.

"_Kneel_," the Asgardian ordered, and hearing him say that to the Captain, seeing Steve Rogers clench his teeth and fight Loki's grip, made Caroline feel furious. She recalled how he'd knocked her out, how he called her _pet_ and acted as though he owned her.

She wanted his blood.

She wasn't even aware she was moving. One moment she was on the steps of the Opera House, the next she was straddling Loki, her fangs dropped and her hands around his neck.

"My little Pet has claws," the Asgardian chuckled. "Oh, you are marvelous."

Caroline snarled, her bared teeth aimed at his throat, and then she was thrown backward, taking the Captain out with her. She felt a burning in her midriff. She struggled to her feet and looked down to see the dress in tatters, damaged by the energy of the sceptre he'd turned against her. Her charred skin was already healing, but her gums ached and she knew that she'd need more blood after this. Barton's wouldn't be enough, not after being stabbed and now this.

"Perhaps I should get your mother, Little Pet. She might make you more inclined to behave."

"You're going to want to leave her alone, Loki," the Captain interjected, placing himself in front of Caroline protectively.

"Or what? She already had to save you, Captain. I think you'd be better off hiding behind her."

"It's not me you have to worry about," Rogers replied, and as though to prove his point, ACDC began to blast loudly over the speakers of the SHIELD jet, accompanied by the appearance of Iron Man.

Her dad.

He took the briefest second to take in the scene in front of him; Rogers standing protectively in front of Caroline in her ruined dress, Loki staring the both of them down, and he blasted Loki without a second thought.

"Stay down, Reindeer Games," Tony ordered, aiming his strongest weapons at the alien. Loki glared up at all of them before the weird helmet and the sceptre disappeared, leaving him in his leather and he held up his hands.

"Well, Pet, it looks like you've been saved," he commented to Caroline. Tony looked ready to shoot him again, but Caroline's gaze was fixated on Loki's.

His glare had faded, leaving him looking oddly satisfied, and Caroline felt her stomach sink at that.

This had been too easy.

XOVER

"Are you okay?" Tony demanded as soon as they had boarded the jet and settled Loki on a seat.

"I'm fine, dad," Caroline replied with a small smile, but she wasn't. She had revealed herself as a vampire in front of an audience. The regular onlookers might be able to write it off as their fear playing tricks on them, or assume she was a mutant with SHIELD, but Captain America wouldn't. her _dad_ wouldn't.

"What was that down there?" demanded the redheaded woman manning the controls of the jets, because apparently she wouldn't assume a trick of the mind either.

"None of your business, Romanov," Tony said before Caroline could say anything. "She's not a SHIELD project, so what she can and cannot do isn't your problem."

Caroline looked at her dad from beneath her lashes, because he didn't seem that surprised. Maybe he hadn't seen…? He smiled down at her and ran a gloved hand over her hair, mouthing _I know_ to her, and Caroline didn't know whether to be worried or elated. Elated because he didn't seem to care, worried because…

Even now, she could still remember the burn form her step dad trying to condition her away from her vampirism. She still sometimes woke up in the middle of the night, Bill's words echoing in her mind.

_I just want to fix you, sweetie_.

She knew that not everyone would be like Bill, but she had been burned by him, and by Liz plotting with Matt to kill her. She didn't want another parent to hate her, but it was what she had come to expect.

But Tony just smiled at her and hugged her to his side.

"It was impressive," stated Rogers, reading that Caroline was uncomfortable with the scrutiny. "Your dad is right, you're not SHIELD, but you should maybe consider it."

"I'm headed to college in the fall," she quickly. "Off to get a degree in something like journalism or… I dunno accounting. Not espionage."

"A waste of potential," Loki said, and all of them turned to him, Tony with fire in his eyes, because no father would approve of the way Loki was watching Caroline, even if he weren't a psycho bent on world domination.

"How about you stop looking at my daughter. In fact, as far as you're concerned, she doesn't even exist."

"Oh, but she _does_ exist, Stark. I had originally planned to use her against you, as blackmail. But she turned out to be so much more. A monster in a pretty little package. I wonder, Caroline, if they'll give you a cell right next to mine. They won't allow you to walk free, particularly not if I tell them what you did to their Agent Barton."

"Barton?" Romanov asked, and she didn't look back, but her whole body had tensed. "What happened to Barton?"

"Nothing," Caroline interject hastily, and Loki gave a low chuckle that earned him a glare. "I mean, okay, so not _nothing_, but he's fine. Well, not fine, because he's being mind-controlled, and let me tell you – _that sucks_ – but fine, as in he's alive and all that."

"_That sucks_?" Romanov repeated. "You make it sound like you know about mind control."

Caroline squirmed at that, because she'd said too much. She didn't talk about her time as Damon's compelled little human; didn't like to _think_ about her time as Damon's compelled little human, because Elena was in love with him, and thinking about that time just made her hate him, made her hate _Elena_ for not hating him, and that wasn't fair. You couldn't help who you loved, and Elena was a good friend, she _was_… at least, when she wasn't trying to kill Caroline's Mom or Caroline herself and –

No. That was enough. Now was not the time to think about past drama. It was in the past, where it was meant to remain. This whole thing with Loki was bringing up crappy memories that she didn't want to think about.

"I assume it sucks," Caroline replied lamely, and she had to look at the wall, because her eyes had caught Loki's and he looked far too interested in the new conversation. Give him an inch and he would run a mile, and the last thing she needed was for Loki to know all her dirty little insecurities.

"Care-" Tony began, but Caroline shook her head stubbornly.

"How about we talk about what happens next. Do you guys drop me off in Mystic Falls? Do I go with you back to New York? I mean, what happens with me?"

"You come with us back to the Hellicarrier," Romanov replied. "And then Fury decides what happens next."

"I'll send you to the Stark Tower," Tony promised. "You won't be sticking around SHIELD for long."

Caroline smiled thankfully at her dad, knowing that if anyone could go against an undercover spy agency, it was him.

Then lightning flashed and Loki tensed.

"Scared of thunder?" she asked mockingly, unable to stop herself from taking the chance to make him feel a little smaller.

"No, Pet," Loki replied with a smirk. "I'm just not overly fond of what follows."

As if in answer, something landed on the roof of the jet, making it shake.

"What the hell?"

Tony had already opened the back of the jet, planning to fight whatever it was. But in a flash of red and silver and gold something (someone?) had Loki by the neck and had dragged him out of the jet. Tony cursed and made to follow.

"Dad, wait!" Caroline began.

"You can't just go without a plan of attack, Stark," Rogers said at the same time.

Tony closed his mask and turned back.

"I have a plan, Rogers," he replied. "Attack."

Then he left the jet as well.

XOVER

His name was Thor. He was Loki's older (adopted) brother, and also insanely hot.

Like really insanely hot. All long blonde hair and blue eyes with bulging muscles. In fact, she thought his muscles might even have muscles. It was all very impressive. Caroline alternated between watching him and watching the drama going on between Loki and Nick Fury, because her father had stated she would be sitting in on this meeting, or they could deal with Loki sans Iron Man.

She had to agree with Loki – the cage _was_ impressive. And she'd seen Bruce Banner (and how cool was it, to meet the resident Gamma guru?) wince at Loki's description of the Hulk.

"And then to be reminded what real power is."

"Well, let me know if real power wants a magazine or something."

Caroline fought back a wince at Fury's last statement. It was rather weak, so she'd have to give the point to Loki, damn him.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner asked when the screen clicked off.

"Yeah, like cancer," Caroline grumbled, glaring at the blank screen.

"Thor, what's his play?" Rogers asked.

"He has an army, called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people, they will win him the Earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract," Thor replied.

"An alien invasion," Caroline repeated blankly, staring around the table. "You're kidding me, right?"

"I do not _kid_ about such serious matters," Thor replied, glancing at her curious, clearly wondering why someone who so obviously didn't belong at this meeting was sitting there.

"Of course not. So, he has Selvig and Barton under his control to build the portal to bring this army here" – when everyone stared at her, she shrugged uneasily – "I _was_ his captive, remember? There wasn't much to do except speak to the mind slaves. Except Barton. He didn't like me much."

"Because of whatever you did to him?" Romanov asked, her expression stony.

"Who knows. Maybe Loki ordered him to hate me," Caroline retorted, but mention of Barton made her remember his blood, which in turn made her gums ache. Because she was _hungry_, and she wasn't quite sure how to politely ask for a pint of blood.

"I don't think we should focus on Loki," Banner said, nodding at Caroline when she shot him a thankful grin for changing the subject. "His mind is like a bag of cats. You can practically smell the crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak," Thor interjected. "Loki is beyond reason, but he's my brother and he's of Asgard."

"He killed eighty people in two days," Romanov dead-panned.

"He's adopted."

"Banner's right," Caroline replied, running a hand through her hair. "He's batshit."

"He seemed pretty intent on you," Romanov pointed out. "Before Thor made his appearance. Maybe you could tell us why."

"Maybe I could, and maybe you guys could explain why he needs Iridium," Caroline replied, looking at the screen in front of her. "What _is_ Iridium?"

"It's a stabilizing agent," Tony interrupted, appearing in the room with Agent Coulson. "It will stop the portal from collapsing on itself. No hard feelings, Point Break. You have a mean right hook." He walked past Thor and passed by Caroline, dropping a bag in front of her as he moved. She picked it up and looked at it.

Blood.

"Had to explain some stuff to Nicky. If you need more, we'll find you a donor."

"This will be good for now," Caroline replied, but she didn't open the bag, too self-conscious to feed in front of strangers.

"Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants. That man is playing Gattaca – he thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."

Caroline recognized her father's methods of distractions, even if no one else did, so she watched him carefully as he continued to explain the method behind Loki's madness and… _there_.

He slipped a chip onto the computer, and Caroline hid a grin. Her father; at least she came by her neurotic tendencies honestly enough.

Also, his total lack of tact.

"I'm a hug fan of your work… and how you turn into a giant green rage monster," Tony said, introducing himself to Bruce, who looked torn between discomfort and laughter at Tony's straight forward method of addressing the Hulk.

"Doctor Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you would join him. Maybe your daughter, as well? Did you inherit your father's way with science?"

Caroline smiled pleasantly at Nick Fury and shook her head.

"Not even a little bit. I'm a cheerleader, Director Fury. I plan parties and flirt with boys. Science isn't my forte."

"No, but apparently you're a little more than just a cheerleader."

Fury called up a screen, and Caroline felt the smile slide off her face as she watched herself flash at Loki who was attacking Rogers. She could track her movements, but she knew that to the humans in the room, it appeared as though one second Loki was standing, and the next he was on the ground, her straddling him. Fury watched her, but she refused to respond, so he rewinded the video and played it again, this time slowing it down so everyone could see the way she attacked.

And her face as she did so – fangs down, eyes red and black, veins prominent.

"Loki calls you a monster, Miss Forbes. I would like to know your opinion."

Caroline looked at him, very conscious of everyone's gaze on her. She lifted the blood bag and tore it open with her teeth, using the plastic tube as straw to draw the blood out. She had already downed half the bag when she realized who the blood belonged to.

Her father.

She paused for a moment, her eyes darting over to her, and she just gave her a small smile, the one he wore so often around her since Afghanistan. It was what she called his mature smile, and she knew it was only for her.

"You know what I am, Director. My father told you."

"I know what your father told me, I just didn't believe it."

"Well do" – Caroline finished the blood bag and tossed it to the center of the table – "beasts and witches and walking corpses, all the things that go bump in the night. I'm a vampire, Director." She looked at Romanov, whose poker face was enviable. "_That's _what I did to Barton. He wanted to kidnap me, so I fed on him. He didn't take kindly to it."

"Why would my brother want you?" Thor asked curiously. "How do you fit into his plans?"

"I was meant for blackmail," Caroline replied. "Then he found out about my condition, and I became more interesting." She flicked the corner of the bag and crossed her arms. "What are we going to do about him? He's here… so what now? Torture him? Kill him? Keep him locked up until he escapes?"

"We will _not_ torture him," Thor thundered angrily.

"Probably a good choice," Caroline replied coolly, causing Thor to calm and watch her with a frown furrowing his brow, and she raised her brow at that. "I can't seriously be the only one who noticed, right? Dr. Banner said he was crazy, but you don't become that brand of crazy without being tortured. It's in his eyes."

"And what does a cheerleading vampire know about torture?" Fury asked, and Caroline stiffened, because she'd given away too much again.

"Care?" Tony asked, taking a step towards her, worry in his eyes. He had that same look, the look that came from torture, and Caroline avoided his gaze, because she didn't want him to see that same look in her eyes.

"You have the same look-"

"Don't lie to me, Caroline," Tony cut her off immediately, his voice stern, and Caroline looked at him.

"We heal fast," she said at last, refusing to look at anyone but Tony. "_Very_ fast. But it's still there, at the end of the day. It leaves it's mark. On Loki it's fresh. Whatever drove him here, it wasn't pleasant. He's still afraid of it. Fear is an incredibly powerful motivator."

"He has an interest in you," Fury mused, his expression intrigued as he considered Caroline. "We could use that."

"No," Tony replied. "We're not using my daughter for anythi-"

"What do you want me to do?" Caroline cut him off. "Play the little blonde distraction? I won't lie, I'm good at it."

"My brother is hundreds of years old," Thor interjected. "He won't be easily distracted by a pretty smile, Caroline."

"Klaus was a thousand years old," Caroline replied looking at Thor. "And he was plenty distracted by my pretty smile. Your brother wants his ego catered to, to believe he's the scariest thing out there. But that's boring, Thor. You know what's not boring? When someone so much younger, so much weaker, refuses to do that. When they look at you like you're nothing. _That's_ intriguing. And I have my bitch face so mastered I might as well copyright it."

"What has been going on in this town of yours, Caroline?" Tony asked resignedly, collapsing into the chair next to Rogers. "What the hell happened that you can do all this stuff? And who is Klaus?"

"Klaus is…" Caroline thought of the Hybrid, and struggled for the words to describe him. Was he a friend? No, not really. He was… he was a lost opportunity. He was symbolic of the world she could have, but was too afraid to grasp. And she had no idea how to describe him to someone who didn't know their history. "Klaus is…incredibly similar to Loki. Only he doesn't want to rule the world; just the vampires in it. Considering he is the oldest and most powerful of us, we tend to let him."

"But you played the, ah… little blonde distraction for him?" Bruce asked. "That had to take some guts."

"Yeah, well, he took an unfortunate liking to me. After he convinced my boyfriend to poison me. On my birthday. _That_ was fun."

"You called me that day," Tony said, his head buried in his hands. "I remember it. It was the last time we had a conversation that didn't turn into you telling me I sucked."

"I thought I was going to die," Caroline replied with a shrug. "It turns out I was just collateral damage, but that was the unfortunate beginning to _that_. Look, Klaus isn't important, okay. All you guys need to know is that I can do this. I can figure out Loki's game. Because you know he has one" – she looked at Fury – "I fought Loki. He's strong, he's fast, and he can teleport. The only reason he's on this helicarrier right now is because he wants to be. So let me play the little blonde distraction. Worst case scenario, it doesn't work and we seem desperate. Considering that we _are_ desperate, I don't think that's too big of a problem."

Fury nodded.

"Let's get you down to that cell."

XOVER

"So, they send in my Pet. Or did you volunteer? Miss me already?"

"You're adopted," Caroline said, sitting on a chair and ignoring the question. "Is that was this is about? Daddy issues? Or maybe it's mommy issues? I didn't actually ask Thor."

"I have no such issues-"

"Because I could tell you a thing or two about parental issues," Caroline continued, speaking over Loki. "My mom plotted to kill me with my boyfriend… well, ex-boyfriend. He just wasn't ex at the time. My dad is Iron Man, and just when our relationship was actually starting to get good, I acted like a brat because I didn't want him to know about my little fang problem. Oooh, and my stepdad? Totally tortured me."

Caroline hadn't wanted to let him know about her issues – something he could use against her- but she had come to the conclusion as she walked with Fury to the cell that she needed to give him something. Family issues were something they shared, so family issues it would be.

"I'll bite, Little Pet," Loki took a seat as well, though he had to use the floor. "Why would your step father torture you?"

"He wanted to fix me," Caroline replied with a shrug. "You know, show me blood, let me turn all fangy, then apply pain. Condition me not to respond to blood and voila, fixed!"

"Did it work? I would assume not, as I've seen you turn… _fangy_ on multiple occasions."

"I can't be fixed. I'm a vampire. I will always be a vampire. And I'm better like this. I like who I am now. I'm strong, ageless, _fearless_," Caroline smirked lightly, recalling Klaus' words to her, the night she'd begged for Tyler's life. "He wasn't the first to torture me. Have you ever taken a bullet to the brain?"

"I can't say I've ever had the pleasure," Loki admitted, his eyes narrowing, obviously intrigued by this new conversation.

"I have. God, I screamed. That was the first time, you see. I'd never felt pain like that before, and I remember thinking that it wasn't fair. That I hadn't done anything to deserve it. How long did the Chitauri torture you, before you agreed to lead their army?"

Loki froze at the sudden turn of subject, his face becoming emotionless and he got to his feet, turning his back to her.

"A fact finding mission. You wish to know my plans. I'm not so easily fooled, Caroline Forbes."

"Hey, I'm showing you mine. The least you can do is show me yours," Caroline replied.

"You speak of being strong, ageless, and fearless, yet you're not," Loki replied, spinning back around with a calculative expression. "Not fearless, at least. You've been tortured since you became what you are, you've been weak. And you know it. Yet you've taken no steps to repair that. I could, you know. I could make you a queen. I could give you the world."

"Paris, Rome, and Tokyo?" Caroline replied, and she knew her expression probably confused Loki, the reminiscing expression she knew she wore.

"All of them and more," Loki agreed, stepping closer to the glass of the cage. "True power."

"_True beauty_," Caroline murmured lowly, causing Loki to frown in confusion, and she laughed, shaking her head. "God, I could write a script for this. It's always the same, isn't it? You offer me the world, never considering that I could find it for myself."

"You act as if we've had this conversation before."

"_We_ haven't. But I have. With someone just like you. He didn't realize it, either. That he had no hope of winning. You don't get to have the world, Loki. Not when we already own it."

"I offer you everything and you scoff. Then you can burn with them all – your Man of Iron and Captain America. I'll render all you love to dust, and you'll beg me to grant you mercy. Maybe it will be over the corpse of your mother."

"I turn you down, so you play the part of monster, Loki?" Caroline leaned forward smirking. "It doesn't suit you."

"Oh, I'm not the monster. He's already been invited in."

"Bruce," Caroline murmured, rocking back in realization. "That's your plan… Bruce. But why let yourself be taken? Why play with me? Why not just skip over this all together and take the Earth?"

"I have no idea what you speak of," Loki snarled, but she could read the frustration in his eyes, the anger that she had discovered his play, even if she didn't have all the details.

"Yes, you do, but I don't need you to spell your endgame out for me. I'm good at puzzles." She stood and headed for the door, lifting the radio Fury had given her to her mouth as she did so.

"You don't see your own potential!" Loki called after her, making her pause at the door. "You will forever be hidden behind the image of the good child, so determined to play human, and all the potential will just wither away, never utilized. You could have them all – all those who hurt you – kneeling at your feet in submission, yet instead you let them walk all over you."

Caroline allowed herself a brief moment to picture it, Damon and Elena and anyone who had ever hurt her, kneeling before her in submission. It would be sweet, she knew. As sweet as when she had surprised Damon with her new strength and told him _you suck_. She'd felt powerful in that moment… then she had killed a Carnie and turned into a sobbing, uncontrolled mess.

Power was a fleeting illusion, she knew that firsthand. But other things – friendship, family, love – those weren't fleeting, nor were they illusion.

"Maybe," she agreed. "But I do break a few ankles when they do that walking." She pressed the comm button on the radio and spoke into it. "His play is the Hulk. He wants to use Bruce to get the hell out of dodge and take out as many agents as he can while doing so."

XOVER

When she walked into the lab her dad and Bruce were using, she walked into the middle of an explosive argument.

"You plan on using the tesseract to make weapons!" her dad snarled.

"Did you forget how you made your fortune?"

"I thought you mortals were above such petty thing!"

The argument was such that everyone was speaking over everyone else, and even with her superior sense, she couldn't keep up.

"We did it because of him," Fury stated, pointing at Thor. "And to prepare, because things like her pop up" – this time, he pointed at her – "we have aliens taking out small towns, and blood drinking monsters on the loose, and you wonder why we want superior weapons?"

"It wouldn't work on me," Caroline said dryly, rolling her eyes at Fury's dramatic proclamations. "Vampires aren't that easy to kill. And doesn't Thor there come in peace?"

"His brother doesn't," Romanov interjected. "Can you really be so naïve, as to think that these weapons aren't necessary."

Caroline thought of a bag full of white oak stakes and how they had all nearly died because of them.

"I think the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Make these weapons, and they'll be used against us. Because human, vampire or alien, the one thing we can be counted on is to come up with new ways to kill each other."

"Caroline is right," Bruce agreed, and Caroline felt nervous, because he looked angry, and she didn't think she could take on the Hulk. "This isn't what I signed on for."

"You need to calm down, Banner," Fury said. "Romanov, take him-"

"Where?" Bruce scoffed. "In case you've forgotten, my room is rented out – and you'll want to take your hand off that gun, Agent Romanov. It won't kill me. I know, because I've tried."

The room went silent at that, everyone looking at Bruce in shock. Everyone but Caroline, because she could sympathize with Bruce and feeling completely out of control.

"I was low," he said as an explanation. "So I put a bullet between my teeth. The other guy spat it out."

"Bruce-" Rogers began, but Bruce cut him off.

"You don't get it, Cap. What that's like-"

"I killed a carnie," Caroline said suddenly, and everyone turned their eyes to her, shock still prominent from Bruce's revelation made sharper by hers, but she kept her gaze on Bruce. "The day I first turned. I was alone. I didn't even know vampires existed. My friends did, though. I'd been in a car accident, so they had another friend, a vampire, heal me with his blood. We can do that. So, I had vampire blood in my system and I got smothered. I woke up as a vampire, had no idea what I was doing, and I ended up killing a Carnie. I couldn't stop myself – I didn't _want_ to stop myself. I _liked_ it. The blood, the death. So yeah, I know what it's like."

"You can control it though-"

"Because I'm a neurotic control freak on crack," Caroline agreed, cutting Bruce off again. "But I can't always. In Germany… I was so _angry_. I had been taken from my home, from my friends, and here was this guy calling me Pet and making me feel helpless, and I got _pissed_. That's why I attacked him. Not because I wanted to save the innocent, but because he made me _mad_. I'm not always in control, Bruce. And sometimes… sometimes it's so tempting to just give in. To be the monster. So I get it, and I get why all of this would piss you off. But you need to put down the sceptre, because I've been stabbed by it once before, and I'd rather not be again."

Bruce looked at her with confusion for a moment, before looking down at the sceptre he'd grabbed in his anger. He stared at it, as if he didn't understand what he was seeing, then one of the monitors began to beep.

"The Tesseract," Bruce said, setting down the sceptre and moving to the monitor. "I don't believe th-"

Then the world exploded.

XOVER

Caroline came to with a crick in her neck that said it had been snapped in the explosion. She hated having her neck snapped – it was the worst possible feeling, and the waking up was always so disorienting. It took her a moment to realize that the blue she saw above her was the sky.

Only it wasn't, not really, because there was more blue – electric, unnatural blue, tearing the sky open into a black abyss that was letting monsters through.

Loki's portal.

He had opened the portal. That meant she needed the sceptre. Now.

Caroline struggled to her feet and looked around. She recognized New York and, when she looked over the edge of the roof, realized she recognized the building she was on top of as well. It was Stark Tower. Caroline glanced over at the portal. She saw Selvig sprawled next to it, and rushed over, checking for a pulse.

It was there; he was just unconscious.

Caroline felt relief at that, and she left Selvig to return to the edge of the roof. It was a long drop, down to the balcony where she could access the living quarters.

Lucky for her she was a vampire.

Taking a deep breath, Caroline let herself drop.

XOVER

Loki walked into Stark Tower, his gaze never wavering from the man himself as he rid himself of his suit and sauntered up to the bar. This was Caroline's father, and how such an intriguing creature – a girl who had the capability to be _magnificent_ – could come from a simple human, Loki would never know.

Then again, as far as humans went, Stark _was_ intelligent, almost worthy, so perhaps it did make sense.

"I have to wonder," Loki mused, "if your daughter takes after you or her mother."

"It depends on who you're talking to," Stark replied with his typical arrogance. "I'd say me… actually, Liz would likely say me as well, so I guess it's me. Looks like her mom, though. Now, I hate to be the cliché father, but what exactly do you want with my daughter?"

"She's quite exceptional. And her strength… have you had the chance to witness it firsthand yet, Stark? I could sense the untapped potential in her. Give her time, a few more years, and her strength will be exceptional. All that potential… someone needs to be there to mould it."

"And you plan on it being you?" Tony asked. He held up a decanter of alcohol and held it toward Loki. "Drink?"

"Is this your way of trying to appeal to my humanity?"

"No, this is me being polite. Now, this is me threatening you: stay away from my daughter. She's better than you could ever hope to be."

"Stalling won't work on me."

"No, threatening," Stark corrected, pouring himself a drink.

"The Chitauri are coming. What do I have to fear? You really should hope for your daughter to join me; at least then you'll be assured of her survival."

"You have the Avengers to fear… it's what we call ourselves. Earth's mightiest heroes."

"I've heard of them," Loki agreed, smirking at the thought of the fools, and did Stark really think they could stop him? They could hardly stand to be in a room together. "They leave much to be desired. No, your daughter is far more interesting. Let's talk about her instead."

"I told you, stay away from her."

"Playing the part of protective father, Stark?" Loki asked with a mocking smirk, approaching the shorter man. "Perhaps I'll let you be her bodyguard, once you've helped me destroy your fellow Avengers."

Loki tapped the staff against Stark's chest. There was a dull _chink_, and nothing happened. Loki frowned, reminded of when he'd tried this on Caroline and gotten the same response. Was Stark a creature like her, simply better at keeping it hidden?

No, Caroline hadn't wanted her father to know about her, which meant it couldn't be a genetic condition. Loki tapped his chest again. Nothing.

"That usually works."

"Well, you know. Performance issues-"

Loki had never met a man as infuriating as Stark. He made that decision a split second before he made the decision to lift Stark and toss him – and his insubordinate tongue – out the window of his own tower.

Let the man fall to his death.

Loki smiled in satisfaction, right before he was nearly knocked off his feet by an object flying by him.

Another suit.

No matter, Loki decided as he watched Stark fly back up, covered in the armour once more. The Man of Iron would be eliminated soon enough, along with Thor and the other do-gooders.

All of them but Caroline, who would come to see things Loki's way. Because what was the point of potential, if you didn't realize it? And Loki would _make_ her realize it.

"There's someone else you pissed off," Stark stated, ever the gnat in Loki's side. "His name is Phil."

Loki lifted his sceptre, but Stark reacted first, shooting Loki in the chest and sending him flying back. Loki mentally cursed, but Stark flew off, the portal above them opening. Loki stood and dusted himself off, smiling in satisfaction. He walked out onto the balcony to see the portal and the destruction it brought with it, but he came up short as a figure landed in front of him, knees bent.

Caroline.

The portal could wait.

XOVER

He dad was fighting aliens above her, but Caroline was staring down Loki. He was dressed in his armour and helmet once more, sceptre held in his hand.

The sceptre Caroline needed to steal. Because that's what Selvig used as the failsafe. She remembered the images on the screen, before they'd left the high-tech cave for Germany. Her compulsion had snuck through enough, she was sure of it, just as she was sure that the sceptre was the secret to closing the portal that was currently allowing any alien floating in another world into theirs.

"You've awakened. I'll admit, I felt some worry when I found you. Necks weren't meant to be bent at that angle, I'm quite positive, and I almost feared you may actually be dead."

"I _am_ dead," Caroline replied stonily. "It's how you become a vampire. You die."

"Vampire?" Loki mused, walking slowly around Caroline. She tensed, prepared for an attack and searching for her own opportunity to do so. "Is that what they call it?"

"It's the polite term. Blood sucking monster is also a pretty common one," Caroline replied pertly, and Loki chuckled.

"Yes, monster. I saw it in your eyes, when you attacked Barton, and every time you dropped your fangs after that. Do you wish for my blood, Caroline? You look a little pale… perhaps your healing took more out of you than expected? Would you like a donation?"

Loki took the sceptre and slashed a shallow cut across his wrist. The scent of blood hit Caroline, and she felt her fangs drop. His blood smelled divine – fresh and full of power. She closed her eyes, inhaling, and she knew that when she opened them again she was fully vamped out.

"There it is… the monster beneath the beauty. Such a juxtaposition. It's intriguing. Shall I let you drink of me, Caroline?"

She spun away from him, closing her eyes and fighting back the bloodlust. She could do this. She was stronger than this and…

_God_, it smelled so _good_.

"I must admit. Your self-control _is_ impressive. Are all of your species this good at denying their instincts, or is it just-"

Caroline spun around with a hiss, grabbing his wrist and sinking her fangs in. His blood hit her tongue and burst with flavour, and she almost moaned it tasted so good.

"Yes, drink up my dear," Loki murmured, smirking over her head. She drank deeply, ignoring the chaos of the aliens around them, caught up in the taste Loki and his blood.

"Loki!" Thor shouted angrily, and it was like cold water had been tossed over Caroline's head. She dropped Loki's wrist, as though burned, and flashed back from, wiping the blood from her lips.

"You have horrible timing, Thor," Loki said with rolled eyes. "I am otherwise engaged, in case you didn't notice."

"Leave her alone, Loki. Stark's daughter is not for you! Look around, instead, and see the chaos you are causing! Do you really see this ending with you as a King?"

Loki sneered at Thor, and rapidly attacked. Thor blocked the strike with his hammer, and then swung back. Caroline stepped back, watching the brothers fight and allowing herself to regain control over her blood lust. Loki's blood had gone a long way towards sating it, but she was almost afraid that his had ruined her for any other blood. Not even Klaus' had tasted that good. Oh, the Hybrid's had been powerful, but Loki's? Loki's had been pure _magic_, and she thought that it would be very easy to get addicted to that taste.

She shook her head hard once, determined to forget about that. She knew how this worked – let herself lust for his blood and it was a slippery slope to actually feeling torn over him. She'd been there, done that, owned the t-shirt, and didn't need a repeat performance.

The brothers moved with fluid grace. Their fight was impressive, almost like dancing, in a hard, brutal way. Thor was an offensive fighter, using his strength and power. Loki was more subtle, more graceful with leaps and spins designed to throw Thor off and get under his guard. Caroline found herself entranced by the pair, until the finally seemed to come to a deadlock, weapons and bodies pressed close together, each trying to out muscle the other.

"We can end this, brother!" Thor shouted.

"It can't be stopped!" Loki shouted back, and Caroline thought he almost looked regretful as his eyes took in the damage being done to the city around them. Caroline took the opportunity to look around herself. It was chaos. Chaos and destruction.

Like Loki… God of Chaos, God of Lies, God of fooling his older brother.

Caroline spun back, ready to shout a warning at Thor, to tell him to keep his guard up, but it was too late. Loki had already stabbed a knife deep into his side. Thor pulled back with a pained roar, and Loki took the chance to get a way, leaping over the side of the balcony onto one of the Chitauri.

"We'll speak again soon, Caroline!" he called. "Before this is over. I suggest you contemplate your options."

Caroline knelt at Thor's side, checking the wound.

"My blood heals," she said, meeting Thor's gaze. "I can…"

"Thank-you, Lady Caroline," Thor replied, bowing his head respectfully. "But Asgardians heal quickly. I will be fine."

Caroline helped him regain his feet, and they both looked out over the destruction of the city.

"You were drinking his blood," Thor said.

"I snapped my neck… I'm always hungry, after I am injured. Loki must have figured that out. I would like to say that he took advantage of me, but I can't. I lost control."

"As you spoke of with Banner."

"Yes," Caroline agreed. "We have to get the sceptre back from him Thor. I managed to compel Selvig – it's a form of mind control – I managed to use it, to get him to build a failsafe into the portal. But we need the sceptre to activate it."

"You can control minds?" Thor asked with surprise.

"I can plant thoughts, make people do things. It's not like the sceptre, not really, and it's not as strong… but I think Selvig _wanted_ to fight, so the compulsion stuck. I don't like using it. I… it sucks, not knowing why you do things, being a victim like that. But it was all I could think to do."

"Someday, Lady Caroline, you will have to sit with us and tell us your story. You carry many secrets. Heavy ones, I think; the kind that could destroy you, or set you down a path like my brother's. Best you air them, before they destroy you. I will get the sceptre. You should stay here. Unless you can assist…?"

"In this kind of fight? I wouldn't know how," Caroline admitted. "I'll stay here. Go back to the roof and check on Selvig. He was knocked unconscious when I woke up. He may be awake by now. Good luck, Thor."

"You as well, Lady Caroline."

Thor took to the air, and Caroline watched him go, considering his words. She _did_ have many dark secrets – Damon and Elena and her feelings about them both, memories of Tyler allowing her to be tortured, a burning anger towards Alaric, that she had never quite been able to shed, and now she didn't feel she had the right to, because who would speak badly of the dead? – but she wasn't sure she was ready to speak of them just yet.

Then again, they would have to survive the day, or it would be a moot point anyway.

XOVER

Selvig had been awake, and he had confirmed her theory – he had indeed built in a failsafe. Her compulsion, put together with his gut instinct that it needed to be done, had been enough to grant him that small act of rebellion against Loki.

"I thank you for that."

"Don't thank me yet," Caroline replied. "We still need to get that staff back."

Outside the battle raged. She had gone out briefly and had nearly been shot by a Chitauri for her troubles, but it had been long enough to see that the Hulk had joined the other Avengers and was successfully smashing Chitauri… but for every one destroyed, three more came out of the portal to replace it.

They needed the sceptre.

That's when Loki came flying through the window. Followed shortly by the Hulk himself.

"Enough!" Loki roared. "I will not be defeated by some mindless bea-"

"Holy shit," Caroline murmured, watching as the Hulk grabbed Loki by his leg and proceeded to lay the fastest, most brutal beat down on the Asgardian that Caroline had ever seen. By the time the Hulk left once more with an arrogan _puny God_, Loki was lying prone in an indent in the floor, a pained squeaking the only noise he made.

Caroline and Selvig looked at each other, shocked by how quickly that had been over and done with. Then Caroline looked outside and saw the sceptre.

"Let's end this," she said grimly to Selvig. He nodded and led the way outside. Caroline paused once, to look back at Loki. He looked up at her from the floor, his expression pained and tired. Caroline thought she should say something, but he looked so very pitiful that instead she simply walked outside, leaving him behind to wallow.

XOVER

They closed the portal, but her dad almost died. SHIELD, in its infinite wisdom, had decided trying to blow up New York was a good idea. Tony had carried the nuke up into the portal. Caroline had been forced to close it, not knowing if he would make it out successfully. When he did, it had been unconscious and unable to fly.

Caroline would be eternally grateful to the Hulk for saving him.

She was still holding tightly onto Tony's arm when they went into the penthouse to retrieve Loki. He had managed to pull himself out of his hole to sit on step.

"If it's all the same to you," he said, looking up at the Avengers and Caroline, who towered above his reclined form. "I'll take that drink now."

It had seemed to anti-climatic to Caroline, that all it took to defeat the Chitauri was a green rage monster and a sceptre… okay, an a nuke, although that was unplanned. But it didn't seem to be a properly epic end, not after all the damage the Chitauri had wrought in their short time on Earth.

Still, it was done. She could breathe again and not worry about alien princes breathing down her neck. Loki was being taken back to Asgard, out of her life. She stood with her father as Thor led his brother to prepare to leave. They had put a muzzle on him; Thor claimed it was so he couldn't use his silver tongue. Caroline thought it was just for the added humiliation. His gaze wandered over all of them – Barton (who had been on the good side in final fight), Romanov, Bruce, Rogers, Tony – before they finally settled on Caroline. She stared back and he quirked his head.

She felt a shiver run down her spine, because she swore that he was smirking at her behind his muzzle. His eyes darted down, to the wrist where she could see the faint remnants of her bite, and she felt her gums ache and the veins around her eyes grow thick as she remembered the taste of him – full of magic and potential. She looked down and swallowed rapidly, looking up only once she was sure she had her features under control.

Loki's eyes were full of knowledge- he knew she struggled, and he enjoyed it. His eyes said _we're not done yet_.

Caroline flipped her hair over shoulder and spun away.

_Yes. We are_.

XOVER

Caroline returned to Mystic Falls and fell back into the rhythm of life. Summer ended and she started college. Tyler came back, then left again in pursuit of revenge. She found out Bonnie was dead, then Bonnie was brought back as the anchor. Katherine returned as a human, and then died as a human, and Klaus came to gloat, but instead he fucked her against a tree.

Throughout it all, Caroline put on a good face. She smiled and tried to act normal… but it wasn't normal. Because she drank blood from blood bags and it was tasteless. She had tasted nirvana, then watched it walk away – gone to another world where she would never taste it again. And his words had haunted her as well, _wasted potential_.

She tried to pretend she was normal, but she wasn't. She had been changed by her experience with Loki and the Avengers, and whispers of potential, and despite her best attempts, she just couldn't quite fit into her old life.

_She'd fucked Klaus against a tree, for God's sake_. There was nothing normal in that action.

So, she made a call. She didn't want to be wasted potential anymore. She wanted to fulfill her promise, and she wouldn't do that as a drama major at Whitmore College chasing after Travellers. No, she wanted to learn to fight, to be useful, and to save the whole world instead of just Elena Gilbert.

To her friends, her decision to transfer schools seemed sudden.

To Tony Stark, the decision made him shake his head in false shame.

To SHIELD, she was their newest trainee.

And when, exactly eighteen months after she entered the academy, she graduated with highest distinction and the best marks since Natasha Romanov and Grant Ward, she returned to her apartment to see a blood bag on the table, a not written in an elegant scrawl next to it.

_This was not quite what I had in mind, when I spoke of wasted potential, but I am glad to see you took my words to heart. Congratulation on your success, and do enjoy my gift. I will see you soon._

It wasn't signed, but it didn't need a signature. The words and the sweet scent from the blood bag were all she needed.

Apparently she wasn't done with Loki after all.

**AN: And there it is. It was meant to be some light Caroline-as-Tony's-daughter fluff… then it turned into a sort-of LokixCaroline thing. But it was fun to write. And I left it open so I could return to it, because I do so love to revisit my stories.**

**Let me know what you think!**


	2. 0-8-4

**AN: The next part of this crossover. Caroline has moved on from Mystic Falls, but it still dogs her, and haunts her. But she's growing up, and that means realizing she's more than just the Little Blonde Distraction.**

**0-8-4**

She was after a 0-8-4 in New Orleans.

Just her luck. Her first mission as an Agent of SHIELD, and she was being sent right into the dragon's den.

The vampire's den?

"You seem nervous."

As the daughter of Tony Stark and unofficial, but adopted, member of the Avengers, Caroline had warranted Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow herself, as her S.O. Usually Natasha wouldn't take on a trainee, but one set back of being the daughter of Iron Man was that she had inherited his sarcastic nature and tendency to not play well with others… unless, of course, she was in charge.

In short, Natasha was the only one willing to take her on.

Well, okay, Clint Barton had volunteered as well, but the look in his eyes had told Caroline he hadn't yet forgotten the time she had fed on him to unconsciousness, and that any time she spent training under him would be hell.

Caroline had thought Natasha the better option.

Of course, the downside to that option was that Natasha was observant, and it hadn't taken her long to catch onto Caroline's emotional ticks and tells. Like now, and how she was unnaturally quiet as they sat in a bar in New Orleans.

"I have history in this city," Caroline replied shortly.

"Oh? The way Stark spoke, it sounded like you hadn't travelled much beyond Mystic Falls and New York before you joined SHIELD. What's your history in New Orleans."

"It just walked in" – of course this would be one of Klaus' hang outs. Her life couldn't be simple; she couldn't _avoid_ the Hybrid. No, that would be too easy – "Klaus Mikaelson."

"The unofficial leader of your species," Natasha stated, and when Caroline looked up from her hands, where she had buried her face, to look at her in surprise, Natasha merely shrugged. "I have excellent memory, and the day we met was a particularly memorable one."

Caroline had to agree – she had been kidnapped by Loki and wound up attacking him. It had resulted in her being on a Helicarrier with the Avengers, and her secret – that she was a vampire – had been revealed to SHIELD. That had been before she'd become a trainee, and it had been the beginning of her discovering what she was capable of, and then doing something about it.

It was a day that changed her life.

"The Mystic Falls grapevine informs me that he's gone beyond unofficial now. He's actually called the King here in New Orleans."

"We can leave," Natasha offered. "We can make plans for the 0-8-4 anywhere."

Caroline shook her head resolutely.

"I don't run, Nat… besides, he already knows I'm here. He could be useful."

"You know how much I love to be useful, Love," Klaus said, sauntering over to the table. Several of the bar's patrons turned their heads toward their table; other vampires, curious about who could have attracted the Hybrid's attention. "I must admit to some surprise at your presence. Mystic Falls finally bore you?"

"I haven't lived in Mystic Falls for over a year," Caroline replied coolly. "Klaus, meet Nat. Nat, this is Klaus Mikaelson. Original Hybrid and King of New Orleans… it is King, right? I mean, that's what the rumor mill informs me. Or is it Daddy?" she looked at Natasha with a small smile. "Vampires are horrible gossips. I think it's the living forever thing. They have nothing better to do."

"Love, perhaps we should go elsewhere to talk. Your… companion can remain here, enjoy the atmosphere."

"Nat knows it all, Klaus. And I don't have time to visit with you" – Caroline paused here and considered Klaus, thinking that perhaps he would know where they could find the 0-8-4 – "but you should have a seat. We're looking for a book. Maybe you know where it is."

Natasha shot a quick _what-do-you-think-you're-doing_ look at her, and Caroline gave her a tight smile in reply, because while Natasha might know more about SHIELD and how to deal with 0-8-4s, she didn't know about the vampire world. Now that they were there, Klaus would know what they were up to. Better they have his assistance than have him working against them.

"I need more than simply _a book_, Love," Klaus replied, leaning forward. "And more than _Nat knows everything_. Unless I'm mistaken, she _is_ a human, is she not?"

"Yes, but she's not telling anyone about anything" – the only people she would tell would be SHIELD, and Natasha couldn't tell them anything Caroline herself hadn't already – "and the book is old. Really old. It will be written in runes that you wouldn't understand, or recognize."

"I've been alive a long time, Caroline. There are very few languages I don't, at the very least, recognize."

"I know," Caroline replied resolutely. "That's why it would stick with you, because you _wouldn't_ recognize this language. Trust me."

Klaus leaned back in his seat and steepled his gingers, contemplating Caroline with curiosity.

"I can't say I've personally encountered such a book, but I will speak to Elijah, and put my people on the alert. We will find this book for you… on one condition. You have dinner with me tonight."

"Is this your thing?" Caroline demanded, remembering when he had used similar tactics to gain a spot as her date to the Miss Mystic pageant. "Blackmail me into dating you? Girls prefer flowers, Klaus, and sparkly stuff. Chocolates."

"Well, the last time I used this method, you refused to allow me to get you so much as a corsage. Has your stance on that changed? I have a bracelet that I know looks lovely on you."

The bracelet from her birthday. The reminder made Caroline rock back and glare at Klaus. She glanced over at Natasha who wore her usual straight expression, but Caroline could see the amusement in her eyes, and that made Caroline huff angrily.

"No, my stance hasn't changed. One date, and you find me the book. I'm sure you'll figure out where we're staying."

Caroline stood and walked away, ever the master of the dramatic exit, but she knew, even without looking back, that Klaus would be smirking after her.

It made her want to scream.

SHIELD

"Are you sure we can trust this Klaus?" Natasha asked as Caroline prepared for her date. A vampire had shown up at their door, proving that, yes, Klaus could find where they were staying, and informed her that he would be picking her up at 8.

"Not in the least," Caroline replied simply, surveying herself in the mirror. She had decided to go simple – a little black number that showed off her cleavage and her back. She had spent enough time as the little blonde distraction to know what would work, and this dress would definitely work. "But if we acted as though we had something to hide, it would make him suspicious. And then he would search for the book for his own purposes. By letting him in on our mission, he's more interested in _me_, and I can keep him that way while you get us that book."

"You weren't lying, when you said you were good at being the little blonde distraction," Natasha mused. "How did you fall into the role, anyway?"

"Klaus decided to be obsessed with me. We decided to use that fact. At the time, it was to save my friends. I find that I feel much less bitter about the role when it involves the whole world." Caroline twirled, the flirty skirt of the dress moving with her. "So, do I look properly distracting?"

"You do," Natasha acknowledged. "Okay, you distract the Hybrid, and I'll get into his house and find whatever it is he did this afternoon. Hopefully this isn't a waste of time."

"A free meal is never a waste of time."

Natasha snorted lightly at that and made her exit. It always astonished Caroline how quietly the spy could move. Even her vampire senses had difficulty tracking her, and Caroline had decided almost immediately upon beginning her training with the Black Widow that Natasha was who she wanted to be when she grew up.

Caroline glanced at the clock. Twenty minutes until pick up. She smoothed the skirt again and tried not to think of the last time she and Klaus were alone. In the forest. Where they had sex.

Really, really good sex, but sex that had been the catalyst for her leaving behind her life and joining SHIELD. She hadn't told anyone in SHIELD about it, afraid that anything she said would get back to her dad, resulting in the Original Hybrid being blown up by Iron Man.

That would be wonderful PR for Stark Industries.

Caroline sighed and reached for the necklace she planned on wearing, a simple silver 'C' on a delicate chain that her mother had given her for her birthday, only to find that it was gone.

"What?" she asked blankly.

"You should be wearing diamonds, Pet, not such simple little baubles."

Caroline felt a chill run down her spine at the voice. She hadn't heard it in over a year, but the words it had spoken to her back then still echoed in her mind, always pushing her to do better, to be the best, to realize her full potential, because she was never going to be its victim again.

"Loki," she said through lips that felt numb. "You're supposed to be dead."

"You knew I wasn't, Pet," Loki replied, and he appeared behind her in her mirror, holding her necklace in one hand. He watched their reflections as he lifted the necklace and placed it around her neck, carefully doing up the clasp. "You received my gift, after all."

"You were there," Caroline replied, her spine tensing as Loki's fingers lingered at the back of her neck. "I should have suspected as much."

"You've been busy since we last met. Joining SHIELD; you did excellent in your training. I'm not surprised. I knew you would be magnificent. But a lackey for Nick Fury? You could still do better."

"I wanted to learn how to use my abilities, in order to be able to take out assholes like you." Caroline whirled, the gun holstered on her thigh in her hand and at Loki's throat as she spun, her grip steady as she pressed the barrel to his pulse point. "Thor said you died."

"Thor believed that to be so, but I found that death didn't suit. Did you mourn for me, Pet? Shed a tear?"

"Not one," Caroline replied coolly. She hadn't of course, but there had been a part of her – a small, secret part that she kept chained up – that had felt bereft at the news. She hadn't cried, but part of her had mourned, though she wasn't sure if it had been the man or the loss of his blood.

Then his gift, and his letter, had appeared in her apartment, and that tiny part of Caroline had been enough to convince the rest of her to keep his survival to herself. Something she tried not to think too much on.

"Hmm… no, I suppose you wouldn't. Are you going to shoot me?"

"I want to."

"Then do it, Little Pet. I would like to see if your fangs have sharpened. Can you pull the trigger?"

"No," Caroline replied, shortly, pulling the gun away from his throat. "We're in a hotel. The noise would draw attention, and I don't want that. Why are you here, Loki?"

"You seek out the book of the dark elves. It's a dangerous game you play with there, Pet, and I've invested far too much time into you to allow you to die so easily."

"Invested time in me?" Caroline snarled in reply. "We spent a day in each other's company. That's not that much time."

"Is that what you assume? And tell me, Caroline, why did you join SHIELD? What drove you to leave behind your home to become Nicky Fury's lackey? To learn to use your abilities to their fullest, rather than let them waste away? Your Hybrid, who pants after you like a lost puppy… oh, yes. I know about him. I might be jealous, if I didn't know the real reason you wasted your time with him." Loki's hand came up to her neck, gripping it just tight enough to threaten, but not tight enough to cut off her air. "I really left an impression, didn't I?"

"You kidnapped me, made me feel like a victim. Yes, Loki, you left an impression. Because I decided I was never going to be your victim again."

Caroline brought her hand down in a chop across his neck, on hard enough to sever a grown man's spine, and her hand passed through his illusion. She snarled as it disappeared in golden light, her eyes darting around the room, looking for where the real Loki could be; he was there, she could _feel _him.

Caroline breathed in deeply; her training at SHIELD had been specialized to take advantage of her vampiric abilities – _all _her vampiric abilities, and she had learned to track by scent and sound rather than eyesight.

_There_.

The slightest rustle, the smell of his too delicious blood.

Loki could teleport, but Caroline had vampire speed, and when she tackled him, the illusion keeping him invisible disappeared, and Caroline stared down at him, the real him, for the first time in eighteen months.

He looked good – better than he had back then, gaunt and pale, with torture fresh in his eyes. He still had the look, but it wasn't as sharp, and Caroline felt her breath catch. This was the Loki Thor had known and been so very fond of – handsome with wickedness in his eyes and smirk, and he was far more dangerous to Caroline than the tortured wreck of a man he had been.

"Very good," Loki murmured, smirking up at her. "You've learned your lessons well. I shouldn't be surprised; Romanov would know how to bring out the very best of you. They chose your trainer well."

"Nothing less than the best for the daughter of Tony Stark," Caroline replied, her hands pushing down on his shoulders. "The Book. You know where it is?"

Loki gave her a droll _what-do-you-think?_ look. Caroline opened her mouth, planning on demanding its location, when there was a knock at the door.

"Your Hybrid suitor arrives," Loki said, and he reached up to grasp her wrists, pushing her back so he could sit up, but not removing her from his lap. "We'll pick this up again another time, Pet."

He brushed her hair from her face, and Caroline considered punching him in his.

Then he disappeared, and she fell, sprawling on the bed and cursing.

"Love?" she heard Klaus call, and she cursed again.

First Loki, now Klaus. God, but she hated her life.

SHIELD

Klaus was looking at her oddly, and Caroline was trying to ignore those looks.

"You know, Sweetheart, you've seemed to have lost your touch," he said at last, setting down his fork and playing with the base of his wine glass. "Usually when you play the distraction, you act somewhat pleasant. It's a sure sign of what you're planning."

"Maybe I'm not playing the distraction tonight," Caroline replied, pushing her hair behind her ear. "Maybe I've just been blackmailed into going on a date with you. This is my blackmailed-into-a-date personality."

"Really?" Klaus replied with raised brows, looking at her dress pointedly. "Because you're certainly dressed to distract… or maybe that's for the man you were entertaining before me?" His eyes darkened, and Caroline wanted to curse again, because _of course_ Klaus would smell Loki on her. He'd practically rubbed himself all over her, and now she had to wonder if that had been his plan? Was that why the damn Asgardian had been so laid back when she'd tackled him?

Had she played right into his plans?

Of course she had. This was Loki.

"So, who was he?" Klaus asked, and his fingers tightened on the wine glass, sending cracks running up its length.

"What do you want from me, Klaus?" Caroline asked, crossing her arms. "We flirted, we had sex, and then the plan was to never see each other again. You knew a different girl in Mystic Falls, one who didn't know what she wanted. I'm not her, not anymore. You promised me Paris, Rome, and Tokyo, but I decided I could see them for myself."

"With this man, then, the one whose stench covers you? Does he know that you play the distraction for me? Or is he the one who sent you? Perhaps you found yourself another Tyler Lockwood; capable of loving you until another lost cause comes his way."

Caroline rocked back in her seat, surprised by the harshness of Klaus' words. When was the last time she had thought of Tyler – _really_ thought of him, instead of just vague thoughts linked to Mystic Falls? Six months? Longer?

She had returned from New York, and her love with Tyler hadn't seemed as epic, not in the face of alien invasions and realizing her own vast potential had outgrown her hometown.

That her potential had outgrown playing blonde distraction to a temperamental Hybrid.

"Despite what you seem to think," Caroline said coolly, glaring at Klaus across the table, "my life does not begin and end with whomever I'm dating. Once my sense of self-worth depended on being loved, by I've outgrown that. The book, Klaus. Did you find it?"

"You didn't answer my question?"

"I didn't," Caroline agreed. "And I won't. I'm not something for you to claim, Klaus, and _he_ has nothing to do with why we're here. If you need your ego soothed, then I can tell you that you got further with me than he ever did" – and if that punched Loki's ego, because Caroline was sure he was watching, then so much the better – "but the both of you have approximately the same influence on my current actions. Zero."

Lie, of course. They had both made her victims, both spoken of her vast potential, and Caroline had finally listened. But neither of them needed to hear that. Their heads were big enough as it was.

"You are colder," Klaus commented. "In the past, you would have enjoyed this, despite your better judgement. What have you been up to?"

"Where is the book?"

"I have it," Klaus replied at last. "And you can have it… if you answer my question."

Caroline's phone buzzed, and she looked down at it.

_I have the book. Your boyfriend is horrible at hiding things._

Natasha.

"I don't have to answer your questions. I thank-you for your cooperation, Mr. Mikaelson. We have no further need of your assistance."

"What?" Klaus demanded, then his eyes narrowed in realization. "The other woman-"

"Good-bye, Klaus," was Caroline's reply, and then she flashed away, leaving Klaus to sit alone at the table with no more answers than he'd had before.

SHIELD

Loki watched her disappear and considered following her. But his Pet wasn't ready yet; she was still discovering herself, discovering her potential, and Loki would leave her to the tender care of the Widow.

For now.

Instead he looked at the man she had left behind. The Original Hybrid. In terms of sheer power, he made Caroline seem insignificant, but the blonde was more than just her abilities. Loki had seen it in her eighteen months ago; oh, the vampire strength and speed were formidable, but there was more to Caroline Forbes. She had the innate ability to lead, to draw people, and their loyalty. She was every bit a queen, only she had no kingdom over which to rule. Loki wanted to remedy that.

So, too, did Niklaus Mikaelson.

"She is magnificent, isn't she?"

Klaus startled as Loki appeared in Caroline's abandoned seat. Loki saw his nostrils flare, and recognition dawn.

"We have a mutual acquaintance," Loki continued, picking up Caroline's wine glass and sampling the contents. It was sweet, rather enjoyable, and Loki drank some more. "I believe we also have a similar interest in that acquaintance. You will not win her, Hybrid."

"I could kill you," Klaus mused in return, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully. "Eliminate the competition."

"What competition? You are ghost of her past – a mere memory for her to pull out, to recall why she shouldn't miss her home. I am very much in her present; the driving force behind her change in lifestyle. I am the ultimate challenge – you no longer play a part in her life, but I am still a very real threat. As long as that is so, she won't forget me. Not as she'll forget you. A decade, a century… you'll be no more than a foolish teenage romp in the woods, and I'll still be the monster she seeks to defeat."

"If you think that, you don't know me very well," Klaus returned, narrowing his eyes.

Loki looked at him and then he smirked. Klaus had his niche in New Orleans, King of a small corner of the world, no longer the fierce monster to haunt Caroline's dreams, not when she'd had a taste of real power and now looked to save her world from it.

"You're the bogeyman she feared as a child," Loki stated. "You no longer have any hold over her. You're no competition. Not to me."

"You don't know our history," Klaus replied.

"She distracted you, fooled you, and for a while may have cared for you… but _I_ changed the very fibre of her life, Niklaus. One doesn't forget that, not as they'll forget an almost lover of their childhood. Stay here in your city and rot. I will show Caroline the world and, when she is ready, I will give it to her. I thought you might be a threat to me, but you're not. You're no more than a memory."

"And do you think you'll fare any better?" Klaus demanded. "Give it time, and you'll become a memory as well."

"Not if I refuse to fade," Loki shot back. "This has been entertaining, Hybrid. Have your meal on me."

And he disappeared once more, leaving behind a small pile of the currency the humans used.

SHIELD

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"You don't want to talk about it."

"Well, no, but I can try if you want."

"I don't want to talk about it."

Caroline looked out the window of the car as they zoomed away from New Orleans to the rendezvous point. The 0-8-4, _the Book of the Dark Elves_, was secured in the back seat. Fury had told them Thor would meet them on the Helicarrier, to return the book to Asgard where it would be kept safe.

Caroline thought Thor overestimated his father's abilities. After all, Loki lived and none of them had any clue.

_You should tell them._

Caroline had opened her mouth a dozen times to tell Natasha, and each time had snapped it shut again. The news that Loki lived, that he was loose on Earth, would send SHIELD into an uproar. The very best agents would be put on the case, but Caroline wouldn't be.

She was a trainee, and trainees didn't get to hunt villains like Loki. And that wasn't acceptable. Loki had turned her world on its head, he was the reason she had joined SHIELD.

_She_ would be the one to bring him to his knees. He was her monster, and to play no part in bringing her monster down?

Caroline couldn't accept that.

So she kept her silence and she stared out the window, thoughts of Loki and Klaus filling her head, tearing her between the girl she had been and the woman she was. She felt like she was a girl torn in two, caught between her past and her future.

"You're more than the little blonde distraction," Natasha told her, when they reached the Helicarrier and watched Thor take the book away. "I'm not saying you shouldn't use that. You're good at it, and you should use every weapon you have. But it's not all you are, and it's not the only role you can play. Remember that."

Caroline nodded, but the words struck a chord deep in her.

To Mystic Falls, little blonde distraction _had_ been the only role she had played, the only use she'd had to her friends. But she wasn't girly little Caroline anymore. She had been the top marksman in her training year, her ability to disguise herself was flourishing under Natasha, and every one of her instructors reported that she was a natural leader.

She was poised to be the most promising agent out of SHIELD's academy in years, if she could just let go of the past.

Caroline hadn't brought much from Mystic Falls. Some clothes and jewelry, a couple of pictures, and a drawing signed _fondy, Klaus_. To young Caroline, it had been a symbol. A symbol of the world, of what she could have.

To Agent Forbes, it was a ghost that haunted her. A symbol of a man that had got away.

Caroline pulled it out, looking at it, feeling the weight of it between her fingers. She looked at it, taking in the familiar features drawn in charcoal. It was a beautiful picture. Klaus had real talent. But it was wasted on her. She had her own talent, and didn't need to hold onto another's. Not anymore.

She pulled out a lighter and held it to the paper.

By the time the picture fell to ashes in her sink, Caroline felt lighter than she had in months.

Klaus was the monster of her past, defeated and gone, no longer something for her to fear.

But Loki? He was the ghost of her present, and it was time for Caroline to something about him.

**AN: Yes, Caroline burned the picture. No, this does not mean everything is necessarily done between her and Klaus. But when she meets him again, she'll be a bad ass in her own right, and Agent of SHIELD and his equal. And maybe he'll draw her another picture, we'll see.**

**I love writing this, so there is already a third part in the works. It involves Enzo, because I love the Carenzo relationship, and need to have their BroTP in this story. Plus, she needs another vampire to commiserate with. So look for that.**


	3. Partner

**AN: Last part to Caroline's training. She gets a partner… guess who it is? Who is British and sassy and has way to much chemistry with Caroline to resist making them a BroTP again?**

**Partner**

She had returned to Mystic Falls for a visit.

Somehow, and she still wasn't sure how it had happened, she left with a partner.

His name was Enzo. He was a friend of Damon's – a term she used loosely because, really, Damon and _friend_ didn't belong in the same sentence together, and somehow he had decided that she needed a partner on whatever it was she did outside of her small, sad town. His words, not hers.

Although she did agree with him – Mystic Falls _was_ sad and small, and never changing. Elena was still torn between Damon and Stefan, everyone was still sacrificing themselves to keep her alive, and it was still always everyone else who suffered so Elena wouldn't.

Caroline didn't mind suffering for a good cause, but she was past risking her life for someone else's. If she was putting her life on the line, it would be for the world or nothing.

"I don't get why you don't come back, Caroline. This is your home. You belong with us."

Caroline wanted to roll her eyes, because Elena gave this speech every single time she came home, as if the brunette couldn't understand someone wanting something more than to be her friend. Caroline had lots of friends, both in Mystic Falls and amongst the other SHIELD agents, but she didn't let them determine what she did with her life. That wasn't what friends did, after all.

"This is my hometown, Elena. The point of growing up is that you _leave_ your hometown. You find your own place in the world. I've done that, and I'm happy. I'm sorry that you don't understand that."

"Did I do something to make you mad? Is it because Katherine told Tyler about you and Klaus… because this isn't like you! To just abandon us!"

"I'm not abandoning you, Elena," Caroline replied, closing her duffle bag and hanging it over her shoulder. "I'm growing up. I pity you, that you can't do the same."

Elena gaped at that, because while she was used to people pitying her – poor little orphan who lost all her parental figures and her brother (even if he came back) – she wasn't used to them pitying her because she lacked maturity. Elena was wise beyond her years, the girl every parent wished their child could emulate, because Elena was all that was good and kind and loyal.

And now Caroline looked at her with the look of an outsider who saw all the flaws and Elena felt like she was looking at a stranger. She remained behind, and Caroline left, hugging her mom and walking out to her car, a bright red convertible her dad had given her as a gift when she graduated from the Academy.

Enzo leaned against the shiny side.

When they first met, sparks had flown. Caroline had rolled her eyes at his charm and flirtation, and he had found her disdain intriguing. Somewhere along the way, in the month Caroline had been home, they had formed an odd friendship, a sort of kinship where they could sit as the outsiders of the group and laugh at the melodrama occurring within, knowing that they were free to leave at any point.

"What are you doing here?" Caroline demanded, tossing her duffel into the trunk and raising a brow at Enzo.

"What do you think? I'm coming with you. Mystic Falls bores me, and now that you're leaving, so is the only interesting thing that's happened. So I decided to tag along."

"Or not," Caroline replied. "I have a job I have to get back to. I'm not a nomad wandering aimlessly, Enzo. I have a place in the world."

"Then take me, too. I could use a place in the world. I've been adrift since I left Augustine."

Caroline thought to say no and drive away, back to her apartment and her missions from Nick Fury. Back to her training under Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow, and weekends off spent with her dad, Tony Stark, in New York, reforging the relationship that had been damaged first by his neglect, then by her little vampire secret.

But she had been Enzo before. Adrift in Mystic Falls, not quite fitting in, but not knowing where else to go, either. She had found her place with SHIELD, and how could she begrudge another the opportunity to as well?

"Can you shoot a gun?" she asked, getting into the driver's seat.

"Point it and pull, seems simple enough," Enzo replied, hopping in next to her.

"Oh, young Padawan, you have so much to learn."

SHIELD

Vampires had been a revelation to SHIELD. One that Nicky Fury wasn't entirely pleased to hear about. Learning in the midst of an alien invasion that all the creatures that go bump in the night are real? Not exactly a wonderful experience. The sting of knowing those beings existed right under his nose was soothed somewhat by their newest recruit.

Caroline Forbes. Only daughter of Tony Stark and only vampire recruit of SHIELD. She knew the weaknesses and strengths of her species, and though Fury was positive the girl wasn't telling them everything, she had shown herself to be an incredible asset. With improved senses and incredible healing capabilities, the girl was on the fast track to becoming an agent even Natasha Romanov and Clint Barton would hesitate to take on on their own.

But she _was_ Tony Stark's daughter, which meant she wasn't without her faults. Like a difficulty obeying orders she didn't agree with. Or a complete disregard for the rules by which SHIELD was ruled.

"You can't just bring a friend on board because he was bored by small town life."

"He could be an ass-"

"You have to obey commands, Forbes. You have to follow protocol. That's what makes a good Agent."

"That's what makes an average agent and you know it!" Caroline burst back, her hands landing on her hips. "The best agents – the Natashas and Bartons of SHIELD – know when to obey and when to discard rules. They make judgement calls. Well, I made a judgement call. Enzo is a vampire, Sir. You can't deny that I've been an excellent asset, and he's even older than I am. That means he's even _stronger_."

The vampire, _Enzo_, in question was looking around the command centre with an impressed expression on his face. When Barton had landed on board the Helicarrier with Caroline and her companion in tow, Fury had known as soon as he saw the archer's smug expression that Caroline had done something he wouldn't like. Seeing her dark haired companion had proven his suspicions right.

Barton had yet to really forgive Caroline for feeding on him when he'd been under the mind control of Loki. Though he'd taken her on as a student – the girl had shown impressive aptitude for any weapon that could be thrown or shot – he still got a twisted amusement out of seeing her get hell from the Director of SHIELD.

"I told her you wouldn't like it, Sir," Barton interjected with a smirk to Caroline. "She wouldn't listen."

"Oh, I'll get to you and how you should have never brought that man here in a moment, Barton. Don't worry about that."

Fury's words made Barton's smirk fade, and Caroline shot him one of her own, a smug expression that was so reminiscent of the one Stark wore too often that it made Fury wonder, once again, what he had been thinking to hire the man's daughter.

"Look, Director, just talk to him. If you don't think there's potential, then send him back. He won't be telling anyone. As far as the world is concerned, Enzo doesn't exist. He's spent the last seventy odd years as a test subject for an anti-vampire society. He knows how to hold up under torture."

That intrigued Fury. Of all the training they did, the ability to withstand torture was what broke the most agents. Lots of people could dish out pain, but receiving it themselves? Not so much.

"He will be your responsibility."

"What?" Caroline asked, eyes widening with surprise.

"He'll train with you. You will teach the ground rules, the protocol. You'll assist in his training. He fucks up? That will be on you, Agent Forbes. He succeeds? You will share that success. You will be in each other's pockets, so congratulations. You brought yourself in a partner."

"What?" Caroline repeated, and Fury almost chuckled, because making Caroline speechless was a rare achievement, and damn if he didn't love to do it.

"He said that I'm your partner," Enzo cut in, rejoining them with a smirk, and Fury was once again impressed with just how good the vampire senses were. "This should be fun, Blondie."

And when the two vampires left, one with a scowl to show the other to his room, Fury allowed himself a self-indulgent chuckle.

This should be fun, indeed.

SHIELD

"You do realize that any punishment you receive is punishment I receive as well."

That was the first thing Natasha said to her after they watched Enzo's first attempts at shooting a gun. Because Enzo? Quite possibly the worst marksman either of them had ever seen.

"You've just been spoiled," Caroline replied weakly as they stood and looked at the target – bullet holes riddled the thing almost everywhere _but_ the body Enzo should have been aiming for. "Because I'm such a natural talent. I thought you said you knew how to shoot a gun."

"And my response of aim and pull the trigger didn't make you wonder if I had any experience at all?" Enzo retorted dryly. "You do remember that I've spent the last seventy years in the tender care of the Augustine Society, don't you, Gorgeous? They weren't exactly keen to give their vampire subjects weapons."

"We should send you to the Academy," Natasha replied. "Let you get trained in the basics and _then_ train you. Like I said, Caroline, your punishment is mine."

Both women looked at Enzo who looked back with raised brows.

"Maybe he'll be better with hand-to-hand? I mean, he does have the vampire instincts."

He wasn't.

Oh, he had the speed and the strength that meant he would be able to overpower his opponents easily enough, but he had all the grace of a bull in a china shop. His method of fighting was to charge into a fray and count on his vampire instincts to lead him… but after seventy years his vampire instincts were a little rusty, so Caroline with her superior training and more finely honed instincts managed to pin him to the mats time and time again.

"Are you sure you really want this?" Caroline asked him pulling him to his feet again.

"Well, Blondie, you have me facing a challenge now. I can hardly return home with my tail between my legs, can I?" he wrapped an arm loosely around her shoulders and grinned down at her. "Besides, you need me around. Red over there is entirely too serious. She'll have you losing all your Mystic Falls charm without someone to mitigate her influence."

SHIELD

It was pure luck, and a visit from Bruce Banner, that had them realizing where Enzo's true talents lie.

Caroline wasn't even sure how it happened, as she had been in one of her own training sessions in which Clint Barton got to gleefully shoot arrows at her. She was still cursing him, because he'd shot one of his explosive arrows, and now she was pulling splinters out of her right side. She had wanted to return to her room and sleep the session off, but Natasha had contacted her, demanding that she come to the control room ASAP, and Caroline sighed, because if Natasha was demanding her presence then, that meant Enzo had done something. She swore that if he'd stolen Fury's eye patch again she would kill him.

She walked in, braced and ready for the worst and hoping for something marginally better.

What she got was Enzo sitting next to Bruce at a monitor discussing variations on particle theory and how they could maximize the newest SHIELD weapons – known as Icers – for maximum, non-lethal effect using… well, the words were big and flew way above Caroline's head. Her knowledge of Icers began and ended with how to use them.

"What is he doing?" she asked Fury and Natasha, who were watching the pair from their position at a different monitor. Both wore their usual inscrutable looks, but these were different from the usual _why-did-you-bring-him-here_ inscrutable looks they usually wore when looking at Enzo. They looked, dare she say it, _impressed_.

"He is keeping up with Banner in science-talk," Natasha replied, glancing at Caroline as she joined them. "The only other person I've ever seen do that is Stark."

"When did you learn about particle theory?" Caroline asked Enzo, and he spared her a brief glance from the schematics he and Banner were pouring over.

"I had to do something with my time when everyone was busy saving Elena and I really could care less. And if there was one thing I learned about in my captivity, it was science. I decided to stick with what was comfortable when I first expanded my knowledge of this century. I found it suited me."

"You brought us a god damn genius, Forbes," Fury said, crossing his arms and shaking his head.

"Have you introduced Enzo to your dad yet?" Bruce asked. "He has some interesting idea. I think he might be able to help make a suit that can run without the arc reactor."

Tony had managed to save himself, so he no longer needed the arc reactor to survive, but the downside to that was that it meant he no longer had an easy power source to power his Iron Man suits, putting Iron Man effectively out of the superhero business. He had been searching for a new way to power the suits, but none of his methods had been successful or practical.

"Oh God," Caroline muttered, imagining Enzo and her dad in the same room. The level of ego that would amass would be enough to drive anyone mad, and the thought made her pale.

But… if Enzo _could_ help power the suits…

"Well, Forbes, looks like you're going on a road trip to New York."

Caroline muttered a curse as Fury made the declaration and glared at him.

"With all due respect, Sir, you suck."

"With all due respect, Agent, I don't care."

And across the room, Barton threw her a smirk that made Caroline bare her fangs and hiss at him.

SHIELD

"I think I might love this guy," Tony said to her when he broke away from Pepper, Bruce, and Enzo long enough to grab beer from the fridge for them. Caroline was chatting with Steve, who knew even less about science that Caroline did, and she rolled her eyes at Tony's words.

"You would," she retorted. "He's arrogant and has no shame. Basically he's the less rich vampire you."

"I can hear you, Goldilocks!" Enzo called out.

"I know," Caroline called back. "That's why I said it."

"But Fury said you brought Enzo on board," Steve said, confusion written across his face. "Why did you bring him to SHIELD if you don't like him?"

"She likes him fine, Cap," Tony said, sauntering away to rejoin the science brigade. "This is how she shows her affection. Haven't you noticed?"

Steve looked at Caroline with a raised brow, and she shrugged, taking another sip of her coke – after all, someone had to be the responsible adult, and apparently it wasn't going to be Enzo. Or her dad.

"It's the only way to handle them," Caroline told him sagely. "You can't let them know if you feel amusement, or it makes them think their clever, so you have to handle them with carefully maintained disdain."

"And I can still hear you!"

"And I still know that!" Caroline shook her head, and Enzo rolled his eyes at her before letting Tony and Bruce pull him back into the world of arc reactors and Iron Man suits and talk of compounds Caroline didn't know or care about. Pepper gave the three of them an indulgent look before she left the group to join Caroline and Steve.

"He's charming," she said to Caroline. "In the same way your dad is charming, but it's still charming. Are the two of you dating?"

"What?" Caroline choked on her coke, almost spitting it out. "No!"

"Really?" Pepper looked almost disappointed at that. "Tony and I thought you might be. Even Liz thought it was possible. She said the two of you flirted a lot, and I think she's worried about you. Have you been seeing anyone, since you broke up with your boyfriend. Tyler, was it?"

"That's been over for almost two years, and no, Pep, I haven't been seeing anyone." At least, not in the way Pepper meant. Caroline's thoughts went to Klaus, Hybrid King of New Orleans and the last guy she'd done anything more than flirt with. She had seen him once, a few months previous, when she'd gone on a mission with Natasha. That visit had marked the end of them, before they'd ever begun. At least, that's what she constantly told herself.

Then, as her thoughts usually did whenever they touched on Klaus, her mind turned to Loki, the Norse God of Lies, who was really just an alien that enjoyed trying to take over the world. As far as anyone else in the room knew, Loki was dead, but Caroline knew better. He was a constant thorn in her side, never doing anything problematic to the world, but always ensuring that Caroline never forgot about him. She had a box in her closet full of the notes and baubles he had left her, each one kept to be carefully inspected, in case it could someday be used against him.

No, Caroline didn't have any interest in dating, not with those two still haunting her mind. She had enough boy drama with the men she _wasn't_ dating, without tossing in an actual boyfriend.

"You're young, Care. I know you're determined to be the next Natasha Romanov, but that doesn't mean you should cut yourself off from romance. Even the Black Widow has her romantic interludes."

Pepper meant Barton, of course, although no one really knew what Nat and Barton were to each other. Partners? Dating? Loyal friends? Caroline imagined it was a combination of all three, but Nat hadn't pushed her when they'd left New Orleans, and so Caroline wouldn't push her about her history with Barton.

"Don't worry, Pep, I'm not cutting myself off from romance," Caroline lied with a bright smile and an easy laugh. "I'm just not actively looking. It will happen when it happens."

Pepper seemed to buy it, and she fell into easy conversation with Steve about his plans for the weekend, but Enzo looked back from his work with Bruce and Tony, and his expression said he wasn't buying it.

Caroline stared him down for a few minutes, then turned away, determined to ignore his probing look.

SHIELD

"You lied to your father's girl," Enzo said later, when Caroline pulled into her parking space at her apartment. It was too late to bother going back to the Helicarrier, and she had a spare room, so she had decided they would spend the night at home.

"I lie to lots of people. It's good to practice, for SHIELD purposes," Caroline retorted as they waited on the elevator.

"What I don't get is why you would lie about such a thing," Enzo continued, as though Caroline hadn't spoken. "Why not just tell her you have no interest in a boyfriend right now? That romance isn't something you want… unless, of course, the lie was that you _do_ have a boyfriend. In which case, why not tell them? Would they not approve?"

"You don't know anything," Caroline replied when they reached her door, unlocking it and letting Enzo enter. "I _don't_ have a boyfriend, I just didn't want to go into the conversation about why my parents worry that I don't have one."

"Are you sure about that?" Enzo replied, stopping suddenly in the doorway to the kitchen, making Caroline run into his back. "Because it looks like someone may not agree."

"What do you – oh for fuck's sake!" Caroline burst out, shouldering past Enzo and charging to her kitchen counter. There, sitting in the middle, was a chain made out of a gold metal that Caroline _knew_ wasn't of Earth, imbedded with precious gems she knew no human jeweler would be able to identify. As if to prove her suspicions, a note written in Loki's neat cursive sat beneath it.

_I heard about your new partner. I thought it wise to remind you of _me_. –L_

"Who is L, and why is he sending you necklaces that must cost a small fortune."

"None of your business!" Caroline snapped, shoving the necklace into her pocket and grabbing a lighter to burn the note.

"I think it is, Caroline," Enzo replied. "Look, in case you've forgotten, we are _partners_. Now, maybe I'm not as good at the fighting side of things as you are – I've head words like prodigy tossed about when people talk about you – but I still take this seriously. I _like_ working for SHIELD. I feel like we're doing something important. And I know that you do as well… so what aren't you telling them?"

"I haven't even told Natasha about this. Why would I tell you?"

"Because we're _partners_! Natasha might be our S.O., but she is not the one we'll be going through the door with. We have to be able to trust each other. So try it."

Caroline knew Enzo was right. It was part of the reason she had been so setback when Fury had declared Enzo would be her partner. Because it meant she couldn't just think of herself anymore, that she couldn't simply concentrate on her training and her issues with Loki.

It meant she had to have someone else's back, and trust them to have hers.

"Okay. If we're going to be partners, then you have to have my back, Enzo. You can't tell anyone else what I'm going to tell you. Not Fury, not my dad, not Natasha. No one."

"Is Blondie going against protocol?" Enzo asked with a smirk. "How naughty."

"Be serious!"

"Of course. Apologies. Consider me serious."

Caroline sighed and tapped her fingers on the counter, before deciding to just blurt it. Quick and painless, like a bandaid.

"L is Loki."

A beat of silence.

"I'm sorry, but I swore you just said L is _Loki_. I read his file. Alien of Asgard, almost destroyed New York, _dead_. Yet you received a gift from him… a talented man, for the deceased."

"He's not dead. He's a trickster… and what you wouldn't have read in the file is that he is what started all of this for me. He kidnapped me, before the invasion of New York. Kept on talking about my potential and making me a queen. I helped beat him, but I realized he was right. I had been wasting my potential in Mystic Falls. So, I joined SHIELD. That's why I work so hard, because I won't be wasted potential anymore. And he still haunts me, he gives me these little gifts and makes sure he's always on my mind."

"When Damon told me you liked accents, I didn't know he meant _alien_ accents."

"He didn't," Caroline replied, feeling a flush. "He doesn't know about any of this. He doesn't know about Loki or SHIELD or that I'm Tony Stark's daughter. The accent thing referred to… someone else."

"Well then" – Enzo walked around Caroline and opened her cabinets until he finally managed to retrieve a full bottle of tequila and two shot glasses – "we're going to drink, Gorgeous. And you're going to tell me everything. And I'll tell you everything. And anything said here? It stays here."

"Fine," Caroline replied, accepting a shot. "I slept with the guy who killed my ex's mother – and I knew he did it before I slept with him."

She tossed back the shock and looked at Enzo.

"I fell in semi-love with one of the women who held me in captivity."

He tossed back his own shot.

And that's how they continued, each telling the other a secret, until the tequila and half a bottle of scotch was gone and they were both sprawled on the floor of the den staring at the roof.

"So, you want to take out Loki. That's your end game."

"It is," Caroline agreed, poking her cheek, because it had started to go numb from all the alcohol.

"You can't do it alone. I've read up on Asgard. They have science that makes ours look weak… you'll need to know about it, about his magic."

"I know," Caroline agreed again. "And what is life, even, that I have to worry about a guy's magic? I remember a time when all I had to do was rip out a heart or break a neck, because my opponent was capable of _teleporting_."

"It makes life more interesting," Enzo mused. "You know, magic is just science that can't be explained. I read that somewhere."

"That's deep, Enzo."

"I know, but it also has a point… you're the perky blonde angel of death, capable of killing a man at fifty feet. Or with your thighs, which is oddly hot, by the way."

"Thank-you," Carolien replied. "Natasha taught me that maneuver. It's pretty bad ass."

"It is, and I applaud the both of you for it. So, perky blonde angel of death… and I'm the geek. I know my science, it comes easy to me, and thanks to your equally amazing father, who I think I may be in love with, I am also going know my technology. So, what do you say you have some help in your quest against the Asgardian?"

"Are you offering to help me go behind SHIELD's back to take Loki down? Really?" Caroline rolled onto her stomach to look hopefully at Enzo.

"I'm saying that Fury made us partners… and that SHIELD, and Loki, won't know what hit them now that we are."

"Does this mean we should come up with a secret handshake?"

"Yes," Enzo agreed, his drunken wisdom deciding that seemed like a wonderful idea. "Yes, it does."

SHIELD

No one in SHIELD knew what had changed. One day, the duo had gone to meet with Stark, still often at odds and not really acting like partners, and the next they had magically decided that they were going to be the partners who put all other SHIELD agents to shame. It made Fury suspicious, of course, but he couldn't exactly give Caroline and Enzo hell for deciding to do their jobs damn well.

And so, the Angel of Death and the Techno Geek rapidly became the best new agents. Enzo still sucked at anything that didn't require technology, physics or sheer brute strength, but Caroline excelled there, and so they went on successful mission after successful mission for six months until even Romanov admitted that she couldn't teach them anything more. They were Agents of SHIELD in their own rights, and no longer needed adult supervision.

It had been two and half years since the invasion of New York.

The Angel of Death was ready to fly.

**AN: So, there it is. I am considering now going into a multi-chapter crossover fic, in which Caroline actually begins her hunt for Loki, maybe even lets SHIELD in on his survival. I'm not sure yet what the plot will be, but when I decide it will be posted here (and on my A03). **


	4. I walked off a bridge and into the ocean

**AN: A new chapter! Because Enzo might be dead in canon, but here he is Caroline's BFF and SHIELD partner, just as it should be! I do not read the marvel comics, so my characterization of Dr. Doom in this is based off of Avengers fanfiction that I read. Please enjoy:**

**I walked off a bridge and into the ocean**

It was meant to be a simple mission. An in and out just like that, wham bam thank-you ma'am. It was in Chicago, a city where they had gone on countless missions, and when they first arrived, there had been no sign that there would be anything different. Caroline had gained access to the mansion through an exclusive event, posing as the daughter of a wealthy oil baron, come to the party on her father's behalf.

Except that the minor terrorist she was meant to eliminate turned out to be working for Dr. Doom who, hello!, was a super villain that was usually left to the likes of the Avengers, not a pair of level one operatives who were still working on building reputations as something more than just SHIELD's smart asses.

"Fury is going to kill us," Caroline said into her comm as she ducked around a corner to reload her guns and hoped that she could manage to take out the Doom Bots that had been sicced on her.

"Let's work on getting you out alive so he _can_ kill you, Angel," Enzo replied, his voice slightly tinny over the ear piece. "Do you think you could tear those bots apart?"

"The tech is pretty fancy, and the bots are pretty fast," Caroline replied, peaking around the corner and nearly getting her head shot off for her efforts. "Dad curses it all the time. I could maybe take them out, but it would mean going full vampire, and SHIELD would prefer we keep our blood sucking condition under wraps."

"I'm aware of that, but revealed is better than dead-dead. You need back-up, Gorgeous. I'm moving in."

"And get both of us killed?" Caroline yelped, then muttered a muffled curse because she had just drawn far more attention to her location than she had meant to. "We need a plan. Tell me where to lure them, Enzo. Then we can tag team them."

"Okay" – Caroline heard typing over the comm, and Enzo's muttering, because the man wasn't capable of working on a computer without thinking out loud. She heard a pleased grunt and knew he had found something that suited his purposes – "I have a plan. It's crazy, and almost guaranteed to get Fury to kill us… but it will work."

"What do I do?" Caroline asked, moving along the wall and making sure that none of the Doom Bots had spotted her yet.

"Lead them back to the party."

Caroline froze at that, and that action found a bullet almost going through her head as the Doom Bots caught up to her. Caroline cursed and began shooting at the bots, making sure that her bullets counted, each one taking out a bot.

"Are you insane? The mayor of Chicago is at that party. I'm pretty sure there are at least two senators at that party. Forget killing us, Fury will pound us into dust and let us blow away on the wind."

"And because of that fact, there are also more security guards, armed with _guns_, at that party than I care to count. There's your back-up."

"And Bertolini? Do we just count this mission as a write-off? Because I'm not okay with that."

"You're not the only vampire, Blondie. Deal with the Doom Bots. I can deal with the target this once."

"Oh, really?" Caroline cursed again when a Doom Bot managed to avoid her bullet, and sent a shot of its own that managed to graze her along the thigh. She gritted her teeth against pain and shot again, taking a twisted sort of glee when the bullet destroyed its oh-so-fancy wiring. "You know what, fine. Let's do this. You take the blame when it blows up in our faces."

"If this blows up in our faces, you'll be Bot food and whatever Fury has to say won't matter," Enzo replied, his voice uncharacteristically grim, but then Berlin was still fresh in both their minds, so perhaps the comment had been in bad taste.

That didn't stop Enzo's reaction to it making Caroline smile, though.

SHIELD

To call Enzo a bull in a china shop was actually a bit of an understatement. Most of his formative vampire years had been spent in the questionable hospitality of the Augustine Society. While most vampires had been learning to hunt and be subtle about what they were, Enzo had been experimented on. He was probably the only seventy year old vampire alive to be schooled in vampirism by a baby vamp, but since that baby vamp was Caroline Forbes, the Queen of Good Vampirism herself, Enzo was okay with that fact.

(He often wondered, if Damon would still bestow that dramatic title on the blonde, if he knew what she really got up to when she wasn't in Mystic Falls.)

However, he was learning. He would never be good at the fighting thing, not like Caroline, or even the Widow – Enzo might be a vampire, but he was positive the red head could kill him with her eyes closed – but he had learned to channel his strength, and he didn't break things as often anymore.

This meant that, while he might prefer to work behind a computer and in Caroline's ear, he _was_ capable of one simple assassination.

At least, that's what he told himself.

It wasn't the killing he was worried about; Enzo and killing went hand in hand. It was the subtle part he wasn't good at.

Caroline would be in and out, no one ever able to tell that someone inhuman had killed the target. Enzo, on the other hand, tended to leave behind a lot more blood and disconnected pieces. But then again, maybe that was what this situation needed. Maybe a violent, bloody mess would send just the right message to the infamous Dr. Doom.

Mess with a vampire? You get drained.

"Is it the Widow? Did they send the vicious harpy after me?"

Enzo paused when he heard the voice. It was Bertolini, and he sounded panicked. He held still and cocked his head, waiting to see who the man was speaking with.

"No, a lesser agent was sent by the looks of it. Doom doesn't recognize her," Enzo raised his brows as he heard the new voice, recognizing it as Dr. Doom himself. Now this was interesting. "They wouldn't view you as worth the notice of an Avenger. Doom's Bots will take care of her. But this means we must speed up our timetable. The bombs are in place. We simply move up our timetable."

"But-"

"No _buts_, Bertolini. You will return to the party, play the generous host, and Doom will take care of the rest."

Enzo heard Bertolini coming in his direction and cursed under his breath. With Doom and bombs in the picture, the plan needed to change, and Bertolini had to take second place. He looked around for somewhere to hide and, upon seeing nothing, whispered a prayer to whatever God might be listening and jumped up, his fingers digging into the roof. He levered the rest of his body up just before Bertolini exited the room, and gritted his teeth as his muscles screamed at him for putting so much strain on them, not even a vampire's strength meant to be used like this.

Bertolini left and Enzo let himself fall breathing a sigh of relief. He glanced into the room and saw Doom go through a door with an electrical control panel, and he grinned a vicious grin to himself.

"New plan, Gorgeous. The situation is a little more serious than we first realized. Secrecy is no longer an option, and Bertolini is headed back to the party. Go full vampire, won't you? Doom is in the building. I'm on his tail."

SHIELD

Caroline almost scowled at Enzo's report to her. Dr. Doom, and he was going after the man himself?

Not good.

It also meant that secrecy had to be tossed aside. Screw subtle, it was time to reduce these Bots to wires.

She ran around a corner and saw a stairway, leading to the open-balconied second floor and she smirked, leaping up and grabbing onto the bannister. When the Bots followed her, ten in all, Caroline waited, crouching above them. Natasha had taught her the importance of timing, so when she was able to land perfectly in the middle of the Bots, she did so, giving a sharp whistle.

The Bots spun around, all of them aiming and firing on her, but Caroline had already flashed away, leaving half a dozen of the bots to be destroyed by their brethren. The remaining four weren't quick enough in their recalibration, and Caroline had reduced them to junk metal before they realized what she was doing. It was messy and loud, but successful. She smirked at the mess, dusting her hands off, when the smell of shock and fear hit her. Her eyes darted up.

Bartolini.

"Holy crap," he whispered, staring at the Bots, then at her. "What _are_ you? Some sort of mutant? Does the government know SHIELD has more freaks than just the Avengers on staff?"

"No," Caroline replied, easily, quirking her head the man. In her flight from the Bots, she had taken on several wounds, and though they had all healed, they, and the adrenaline from going vampire on them, had left her hungry. "And you won't tell them."

"Oh? Well, I'm sure we can come to a deal," Bartolini replied, trying to give off confidence, but Caroline could smell the fear, and it made her smile a predator's smile.

"No deals," she replied, and she dropped fang, her eyes going dark. Bartolini began to scream, but it was choked off as Caroline fell on him, her fangs digging into his neck. When she had drunk her fill, she snapped his neck, letting his body fall to the ground.

"You okay there, Blondie?" she heard Enzo's voice whisper over her comm.

"The Bots and Bartolini are done. Where are you?" Caroline replied. She picked up her discarded gun and made sure the silencer was still in place before she turned it on Bartolini, hiding the proof of her vicious attack with carefully placed bullets. It would be considered overkill, and have an alarming lack of blood… but at least there would be no distinguishable bite marks.

Fury was so going to kill them for this screw up.

"I'm following Doom. Whatever his plan is, it's happening tonight. I'm… hell, I can hear the echo of my voice. I must be right below you."

Caroline listened carefully, and sure enough, she could hear the movement of Doom and vampire below her. She breathed deeply and listened more carefully, catching the sound of Doom's breath as she moved ahead. She walked carefully, the hunter stalking its prey.

"Tell me about Doom's movements," she said quietly, so she could still hear Doom.

"There's a turn up ahead, heading North. Twenty feet. Do you want to head him off?"

"I love SHIELD tech," was all she said in reply, placing the small explosive that would give off a strong enough charge to rip through the floor, but not so strong as to take out the whole building.

In ten seconds, she was through the floor, landing in front of Doom.

"Who are you?" he demanded, and Caroline almost rolled her eyes. Of all the super villains, Doom was the one that made her want to throw up the most. He was dramatic, always wore his stupid outfit, and he spoke in the third person – one of her pet peeves.

"I'm the SHIELD agent here to stop you from… blowing shit up?" Caroline glanced over Doom's shoulder for Enzo's agreement, and he gave her grin.

"That's right, Goldilocks."

Doom spun around, and his head darted back and forth as he realized he was trapped.

"Where are Doom's Bots?" he demanded, as though he had the right to demand anything.

"_Your_ Bots," Caroline snarled, and she could feel her fangs threatening to come out. "They are _your_ Bots. Stop talking about yourself in the third person. It's not cool or badass. It's just annoying."

"Doom will not surrender!" Doom declared, ignoring Caroline's words, and he growled in irritation, while Enzo sighed.

Her irritation was cut short, however, when the crowd arrived. They hadn't been subtle _or_ quiet, and so had attracted the whole of Bertolini's party. Someone with one hell of a set of vocal chords had apparently seen Bertolini's body, and sent up a shriek that could wake the dead. It made both Enzo and Caroline wince.

"Let SHIELD explain this!" Doom declared with a victorious smirk. "You can stop Doom or you can save the innocent."

He pulled out a switch, and with a dramatic flourish flicked it.

At first Caroline didn't think he had done anything, but then she heard the distant, mechanical voice.

_Self-destruct has been engaged. Self-destruction will occur in t-minus five minutes._

"I hate technology," she stated. Doom smirked victoriously, and pulled out another toy, throwing it up through the hole she had created. Whatever it was, caused an explosion that sent more of the floor falling down and made more party-goers scream. Enzo threw himself at her, using his body to protect hers as the floor fell on them, pieces of marble and cement stinging.

"Crap," Enzo swore, looking at the mess, and Caroline agreed with him.

"Doom is getting away," she noted, looking after the man. "Do you think we can get everyone to safety _and_ catch him?"

"Not if we act human," Enzo replied, meeting her eyes with a grim expression. "But if we weren't human… well, one of us could save the party folk and the other…"

Caroline looked up grimly. She hear pained moaning and whimpering.

"Take care of them," she said, pulling out her gun. She removed the silencer, no longer worried about secrecy. "I have Doom."

Enzo nodded, and he leapt up, landing neatly at the edge of the hole. She heard people gasp in surprise, but she didn't have time to worry about the response of the masses.

Doom was getting away, and he apparently had bombs planted somewhere – God only knew where – in Chicago that they had to get their hands on.

"You foolish girl!" Doom called when he realized she was on her tail. "You cannot take on Doom! I am beyond your petty self."

Caroline hissed out a growl at his words, getting really _really_ tired of his crap, and flashed in front of him. He was looking over his shoulder for him, so when his momentum brought him into contact with her gun, he froze.

"And I am beyond your _mortal_ self," Caroline growled, letting her fangs drop and her eyes darken. She heard Doom gulp, and she smiled. She knew it was a dark smile, full of vicious and violent promises, but she didn't care. "I'm not here to play nice, Doom. You want to kill innocent people? Well… not even being Latverian can save you when you're dead."

"Doom is not alone. You being here won't stop our plans. Doom has allies with power greater than you could hope for."

"Who?" Caroline replied mockingly. "Bertolini? Already dead. I _ate_ him… should I eat you, too?"

"Well, well, well… now this I didn't expect."

It was Caroline's turn to freeze at the familiar chuckle.

"Loki," Doom gasped. "You got Doom's message. Get us out of here!"

"Working with Mr. Third-Person-Wannabe?" Caroline asked carefully, taking a step back from Doom so she angle herself to see both Doom and the newly arrived Loki. He was dressed in a suit, which told Caroline he had probably been amongst the party-goers.

"We ally ourselves with those who offer the best assistance, Pet. I saw your companion's little show. He got all of the innocent citizens out, by the way. It was all very heroic, though I think he would sacrifice them all to be sure you were safe" – Loki sauntered up to Caroline, curling a piece of her brunette wig around his fingers and Caroline clenched her jaw – "I like him far better than that Hybrid who lusts so for you. This one I actually may need to thank someday. He saved you in Berlin. You should be more careful."

"Thanks for the concern, but Berlin was a simple close call. I'm fine."

"Are you?" Loki asked, and his hand moved to pull the wig off, so his hand could get a firmer hold on her actual hair. "You told me once, that you recognized the look of torture… think you that I can't do the same? You _reek_ of it. It angers me, but your… _Techno Geek_, that's what you call him, is it not? His punishment for them was rather fitting."

"We are running out of time, Loki," Doom hissed. "Leave the Agent here to burn when the building goes down."

"Such little imagination, Doom," Loki replied, his voice mocking. "You have failed. By now, the other agent has brought an end to the self-destruct, which means they will have all your records. You're of no further use to me… but I can't have you remembering that I worked with you. I prefer to stay dead a little longer. I wonder, Pet, if I left him to you… would you erase me from his memory? You're so desperate to take me out yourself, that it's tempting to see what you would do."

His grip became almost brutal, and he leaned down, so there were mere centimeters between them.

"I _like _this, being at the forefront of your thoughts. Being the bogeyman you can't escape. Yes, it suits me very well."

"Go to hell," Caroline hissed, trying to break away from his grip.

"Ah, but I've already been there, remember, Pet?"

Then he pressed his lips against hers, hard, and Caroline felt her eyes widen in shock. Before she really considered her actions, she bit him, hard, to make him break away. Then she recalled why that was a bad idea.

His blood.

The sweet nectar hit her tongue, just for a second, before Loki pulled back. His lips were stained crimson from her bite, and he chuckled, victory in his green eyes.

"Just a gift, to ensure I remain at the forefront of your mind," he stated, then he turned to Doom. "Our alliance is up. What happens to you now is up to the agent. Let us see, Pet, what you decide to do."

Loki waved his hand and Caroline blinked. When she opened her eyes again, she was in a computer control room, Doom right next to her.

"Bloody hell, Gorgeous," Enzo swore from his position in front of one of the monitors. "How did you get here?"

"I'll tell you later," Caroline replied grimly, her hand darting out to grip Doom tightly.

"Doom knows your secret," the man said, and Caroline could hear a note of victory in his voice. "And I will tell SHIELD the second you hand me over."

"No," Caroline replied grimly, making him meet her gaze. "You won't. _You won't remember meeting Loki. As far as you know, you never worked with him. I caught you and brought you back here._"

"Loki?" Enzo mouthed silently behind Doom's back.

"Later," Caroline mouthed back, and Enzo nodded, but his expression was tight with worry.

SHIELD

"It's later," Enzo said when he came to Caroline's room that night, as he always did when she'd had to kill someone.

"Fury done reaming you out now?" Caroline replied with a false grin, gripping his hand tightly when he sat next to her.

"I still think he should've yelled at both of us at once. Better time management."

"It could've been worse. At least we brought them Doom."

"Yeah, but they've already had to release him."

"But all the bombs were removed first." She leaned her head against his shoulder and they sat for a while in companionable silence. "Loki was there."

"I assumed as much."

"I _hate_ him, Enzo. He just… he makes me want to tear into something and make it bleed."

"Perhaps it's time to tell Fury about him?" Enzo suggested slowly. "I know that you want to be the one to take him out, but he… he gets in your head like no one else, Caroline. It makes me worry. And now we know he won't just sit back quietly until you're ready to hunt him."

"I know," Caroline admitted, squeezing his hand. "I just… it became an obsession, and now I'm not sure how to just hand it over to someone else."

"Well, I'm here. I'll help you, whatever your decision is."

"Thanks, Geek."

Enzo chuckled, and they sat in companionable silence until Caroline's phone began ringing shrilly.

"It's Stefan," she said, looking at the screen in confusion for a moment. Then she remembered Fury's lecture, and how he'd shown them the news with their faces and the description of mysterious saviours running below it, and she gulped. "Oh, crap. They've watched the news."

The phone stopped ringing and barely had time for the message to ping up that she had a voicemail before it began again, this time flashing Elena's name. Then Enzo's phone began to ring as well, Damon's name coming up on the screen.

"Shit," Enzo agreed, and they stared at each other as the phones fell into silence, then began going again.

"Can't avoid it, can we?" she asked with a wry grin.

"On the count of three?" he replied.

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

"Hey there mate, fancy hearing from you at this time of day."

"Hi Bonnie! What's up back at home?"

**AN: So, now the folk back at Mystic Falls know that Caroline and Enzo are up to something they didn't expect. There will be aftermath to deal with that, but it deserves its own one shot, so that will be coming. I know I said "Partner" would be the last one shot before a full length story came, but then I started planning, and realized there were more one shots that needed be written before Caroline was where I needed her to be for a multi-chapter story. So, make sure you follow this one for more updates!**


	5. Where the wild things are

**AN: Here it is – another chapter! This comes after the previous one, and Caroline and Enzo have returned to Mystic Falls to face the music. When I wrote my own personally summary of this, this is how I described this one: **_**they see her on TV and ask her why she lied. She tells them they only ever saw what they wanted to.**_

**Where the wild things are**

They sat in her car outside the Salvatore Boarding House, united in their silence. This day has been weeks coming, ever since they saved Chicago and got caught on live television doing it, they've known this day was coming.

That doesn't make facing it any easier.

"We could just leave again," she said, her fingers gripping the steering wheel as she watched the house. It looked quiet, peaceful, but Caroline knew the interrogation that awaited them.

"Change our phone numbers," Enzo agreed. His fingers were clasping and unclasping on the door handle, as though any time he almost worked up the nerve to use it, he lost it again. "Get new identities. Your dad could get us those."

"How much do we tell them?" Caroline asked. "We've been putting this off, haven't made plans. This is a bad idea. We're leaving. We'll reconvene at 0800 and actually plan this. I don't do well on spur of the moment."

Enzo chuckled at that, knowing that truer words had never been spoken. Their lives at SHIELD were so wild and unpredictable, that when it came to her personal life, Caroline's control freak propensity had become almost overwhelming. Enzo often mused that she was lucky he was so laid back, because no one who desired even an iota of control over their own life would be able to tolerate her. She would scoff and hit him, even though part of her agreed.

She was lucky to have him.

"Okay, we'll go back to your mother's place and you'll come up with one of your _very_ detailed plans, after which we'll roleplay all the scenarios you come up with. Will you act the part of Elena, or shall I?"

Caroline rolled her eyes at him and put her car into reverse. She had just begun to back up when a dark haired figure flashed behind the car, forcing her to slam on the breaks. She found herself looking into Damon Salvatore's unimpressed blue eyes in her rear view mirror.

"I guess we won't be retreating after all," Enzo signed, running a hand over his hair. Out of all Caroline's Mystic Falls friends, Damon was the only one whose opinion mattered to Enzo. Caroline knew he was as nervous about facing his old cell buddy as she was her own friends.

"Get out of the car, Blondie," Damon ordered. "You too, Enzo. You stopped answering our calls weeks ago. I think it's time for some explanations, no running."

"We could take him," Caroline murmured as she put the car back into park and turned off the ignition. "We have training, and he doesn't know what we're capable of anymore. We could so take him."

"Would you do that thing with your thighs? I get all tingly when you do that thing with your thighs."

The words made Caroline laugh as she got out of the car, and suddenly facing her friends didn't seem quite so frightening, because she had Enzo there with her, and really, what were her friends going to do to her? Tell her it was friends off? If that was the case, she still had her Techno Geek. She had Enzo, and Natasha back at SHIELD, and her dad and Pepper, and the other Avengers, even Barton, who she knew would have her back.

"We were unable to answer your calls, Damon," Caroline replies, and the cadence falls into the even tones that Enzo immediately recognizes as her reporting voice. Caroline has always been the best at giving reports, keeping things short and sweet and to the point. Enzo throws in too many personal opinions and anecdotes. Fine for when he's having a beer with Barton, who doesn't extend his dislike of Caroline to her partner, but not so good when giving a report to Fury.

Or, apparently, Damon.

"Unable to – _you make time_, Blondie. What the hell were you doing that you couldn't?"

"We were in Taiwan. Not a particularly fun job, but it was meant to be part punishment and part getting us far, far away from the public eye. You weren't the only ones who saw that news report-"

"You mean the news report where you revealed to the world that vampires exist? Without asking us? Maybe you should give us a call first next time! Should we be keeping an eye out for vampire hunters."

"Please," Enzo scoffed with rolled eyes. "As far as the world is concerned, I'm just another science born freak like the Hulk or Captain America. There are powers you don't know of who have our back, Damon, and we're only going to tell this story once."

He held his hand out to Caroline, and she grabs it, giving it a strong squeeze before leading the way to the boardinghouse. Damon makes a strangled noise behind them, and they both glance back. He's looking at their entwined hands with a surprised look, before he glances up again, smirking.

"Accents really are your thing, aren't they, Blondie?" he asked, and Caroline looks ready to actually use that thigh maneuver on him, but Enzo pulls her back, stepping in front of her to glare at Damon. The other man might be his friend, but Caroline is his partner, and that counts for far more.

"You don't know anything, Damon. Not about us, not anymore. I suggest you stop talking."

For once, Damon is rendered silent by the deadly calm of Enzo's threat, and the trio enters the house in silence.

They are greeted by everyone – Elena, Bonnie, Tyler, Matt, Jeremy, and Stefan are all there, and it's almost comedic, the way they turn as one toward the duo. Caroline is taken aback slightly by Tyler. It's been months now, almost two years, since she last saw him, when he left her for revenge. She expects to feel pain or longing, or anything… but looking at him is no different than looking at Matt. Fond memories, but no hurt. She doesn't know when she fell out of love with him, but it happened without her ever noticing.

"Care," he said, taking a step toward her, and she gave him a small smile.

"Hey, Tyler. It's been a while, huh?"

The words are a simple greeting, but she can see that he understands the deeper meaning behind them, and he gives a small, almost sad nod, takes the step back. She's no longer scared little Caroline, and the woman she has become doesn't have time for boys and the drama they bring to her existence.

"Yeah. So… saving lives in Chicago, huh?"

"What's going on, Care?" Elena asked, interrupting the moment and drawing everyone's eyes to her. "What were you two _thinking_, revealing what you are like that?"

"You mean the test subject of a scientific serum that seems to be somewhat successful?" Enzo asked with wide, innocent eyes. "Because that's the story being told about me… and no one who saw Caroline do anything out of the ordinary can remember, or lives… or will be telling anyone."

The last is addressed towards Caroline with a critical tone and raised brows, because they're weeks later and she still hasn't told Fury about Loki. She scowled at him, and Enzo just grinned back beatifically.

"We're agents with an organization known as SHIELD, Elena," Caroline said, turning back towards her friends. "That's where I went when I left here during freshman year. I… I was tired of being the eternal victim, and I'm _good_ at what I do. One of the best, to listen to my instructors tell it."

"She really is," Enzo added. "She can do this thing with her thighs. Snap a grown man's neck right in two. It's enough to make you believe in God, really."

"Seriously?" Elena demanded, ignoring Enzo's input to look at Caroline. "While we were dealing with Traveller's and almost _dying_, you were… what, exactly?"

"I was saving the world, Elena, because it doesn't begin and end with _you_, despite what everyone here might have you believe."

"Careful, Blondie," Damon growled as Elena gaped at Caroline. "You don't know what we've been thr-"

"Yes, Damon, I do. Because I have to hear about it every time I come home. You tell me all about the crappy things that have happened, and how people have died, then been brought back, or whatever! And I get that it's been tough, but I have my own things I deal with. I do know what you've been through, but you have no idea what _I've_ been through. Because I don't feel the need to tell you. Because it's on a need-to-know basis, and none of you need to know any more than what I just told you. _That's_ how this works now, okay?"

"So that's it?" Bonnie asked, taking a seat. She was calmer than Elena and Damon, her eyes more solemn. Of everyone in Mystic Falls, she has had it toughest, and more than anyone else she can understand the need to get away from all the drama. "You tell us you're a government agent, and we don't ask any more questions?"

"Do you remember the attack on New York, Bon?" Caroline asked, taking the seat next to Bonnie and grasping her hand. "I know you were technically dead and everything, but you still heard about it, right?"

"Of course I did. I was a ghost, not deaf."

"Loki, the guy behind the whole thing, kidnapped me that summer, Bon. He planned to use me against my dad, but instead he found out I was a vampire. He made me a victim, but he made me think, too. Because he saw the potential in me. His plan was to keep me, to mould me into what he wanted. He lost to the Avengers… but that didn't change what he had done to me. I was tired of feeling helpless, and he was right. I had potential" – Caroline squeezed Bonnie's hand and looked her straight in the eyes, begging her without words to understand, because Caroline could handle losing anyone else, but not Bonnie. Bonnie was her rock back here in Mystic Falls – Caroline would and had killed for her – and she needed her to understand – "I needed to reach that potential. I wouldn't do that here. I would continue to live as I always had, a monster pretending to be human who spent her time protecting Elena. At SHIELD? I may be a monster, but I'm a monster who saves the world."

"You've killed people," Bonnie said, never looking away from Caroline. She could always see right to the heart of her, now was no different.

"I have. I've drained some dry, but mostly I've just shot them. I'm not lying, Bon, I'm _very_ good at what I do."

"And your dad? Bill is dead, so how could you be used against him?"

"Bill wasn't my biological dad," Caroline closed her eyes, because this was really the hardest part. This was a secret she'd kept that didn't _really_ need to be kept from them… yet she had. "Tony Stark is."

"Seriously?" this time it was Jeremy to burst in, as he fell onto the couch next to Bonnie, staring wide eyed at Caroline. "Tony freaking Stark? As in the genius head of Stark Industries… _Iron Man_ Tony Stark?"

"All of the above, mate," Enzo said, sitting in a char across from them. "A bloody genius he is. If I could marry that man's mind, I would."

"You'd have to fight Pepper," Caroline pointed out, a smile coming to her face at Enzo's enthusiasm.

"True," Enzo replied thoughtfully before giving a tiny shudder. "Never mind, she can have him. That woman can be terrifying when she wants."

"So… you've been lying to us for years, then," Elena said, crossing her arms in anger, and Caroline can't help but roll her eyes. She had been afraid to tell them this, and now she wondered why. She still cares for these people, always will, but she's past their drama now. The world is so much _bigger_ than Mystic Falls, she's so much bigger than Mystic Falls, and it's time that they realize that.

"Until now, you never asked, Elena. You never asked why I could never stay… you guilt-tripped me because I left, because I wasn't helping you as you felt I should, but you never asked _why_. You saw me on tv, and ask me why I lied… but you only ever saw what you wanted to. Anyone should have been able to see that I'm not the girl you used to know, but you didn't." Caroline got to her feet and stared Elena down. "You were angry once, because everyone was fooled by Katherine pretending to be you… yet you never once saw that I outgrew you. So I'm sorry I hurt you, but I'm not sorry I left."

"Does your mom know?" Stefan broke in before Elena, or Damon, could blow up at Caroline's words, and Caroline smiles at him, the other friend whose loss would truly cut. He had seen the changes, had even commented on them, but she had still kept her silence from him. But there's no judgement in Stefan, just acceptance, and she loved him for it.

"Mom has always known, Stef. She supported me fully, even though the thought of me becoming an agent terrified her."

"Good," Stefan nodded his head. "That's good. Did Loki hurt you?"

She thought of the taste of Loki's blood on her tongue – pure, addicting power – and she thought of the feel of him against her, as she held a gun on him, the feel of his lips as he forced a kiss on her. He had made her feel helpless, made her feel impotent anger…

But hurt her? Not in the ways that left scars that the world could see.

"Not like you mean. He… he took pieces of me. Pieces I had built up, that made me feel strong. He took them and showed me they were fake. I hate him with every breath in me, Stef, but I owe him a lot as well. Without him, I would still be relying on those fake little pieces. Instead I took them and reforged them into something real."

"Enough of Blondie's dramatics," Damon drawled with a mean little glare at her, because Elena was watching her with hurt eyes, and anything that hurt Elena, Damon would hurt in return. That meant insulting her, but Caroline couldn't be touched by Damon's barbs, not anymore. Not after Loki and Berlin and all those other missions that had taken her and put her through trial by fire until she came out the other side stronger than before. "How did _you_ end up with this… _SHIELD_?"

He looked at Enzo who gave an easy shrug.

"You lot bored me with your eternal quest to save the lovely Elena. So when I met Blondie, she interested me… mostly because of how _un_interested she seemed in what you lot did. She took me to SHIELD, where we discovered I am terrible at the whole spy thing-"

"Like, _really_ bad," Caroline interjected with a laugh, because Enzo could always lighten the world up, and it made her smile. "I mean, we managed to make him a somewhat decent shot, but at the beginning? It was bad. And he still fights like a bulldozer. It's almost embarrassing."

"Yes, thank-you for that, Angel. As I said, horrible at being a spy… but technology, as it turns out, comes naturally to me."

"And all that other science-y stuff," Caroline added. "Get him, my Dad, and Bruce in the same room, and they totally start speaking a different language. Usually Steve or Nat are around, or even Barton, thank _God_, because otherwise I don't know what I'd do. Die of boredom, maybe."

"You weren't complaining when I was able to shut down Doom's self-destruct," Enzo pointed out dryly, and Caroline smirked and shrugged. "So, since Gorgeous there _is_ good at the whole spy thing, and I'm good at the science and technology thing, we balance each other out quite well. Perfect partners, really."

"It was punishment for bringing him at first," Caroline said. "The boss man didn't like that I brought in an outsider, so he made us partners. It sort of back fired when we finally started to get along, but in a good way. Because we're the best badass partners ever."

"It's meant to be," Enzo agreed, reaching across the space between them for a high five. Caroline returned it.

"So the two of you run around playing James Bond and leave your friends to deal with supernatural apocalypses alone. Great, how kind of you," Damon said, obviously irritated by the bond between Caroline and the man who should've been _his_ friend.

"No, we stop alien invasions and put an end to world domination plots before they can really get started," Caroline replied, irritated once more. "We deal with the things that you couldn't possibly understand, and I'm getting really sick of you acting like we owe you something. People are meant to grow up and move on. I did, I won't apologize for that."

"And I owe you even less," Enzo added. "Seeing as you left me to a fiery death, and I really don't know any of the rest of you."

"Then leave!" Elena burst out, whirling on them.

"Elena-" Bonnie began, but Elena shook her head angrily.

"No, if their new life is so much more important than the old one, then let them go. Let _her_ go."

Caroline stared at Elena's back, and she felt the stirrings of pity. Elena had died at eighteen, and she had never really grown past that. She could look at Bonnie, Jeremy, and Matt and see the beginnings of age in their faces, the baby fat hardening into the planes of adults. She could look at Tyler who had a pack and a life elsewhere he would return to after this, and she could look at herself and her own life, a life of an adult, despite being eternally cursed to seventeen.

But Elena? Elena had died at eighteen, and she had refused to move on from that, even as the world around her did.

"Good-bye, Elena," Caroline said, getting to her feet and watching as Elena's back stiffened. "I hope you find what you want some day."

Then she grabbed Enzo's hand once more and led him away, everyone else silent spectators to their departure.

SHIELD

Life moved on, and when they returned back to Liz's house, it was to pack bags and leave for London and another mission. Caroline couldn't quite say when it had went from home, to her mother's house, but at some point home had become the hellicarrier, or even her apartment in New York. Mystic Falls was merely where she came to visit, but part of her had been holding onto that, holding onto childhood friends.

"You're not coming back again, are you?"

It was Bonnie and Stefan, and Bonnie's solemn eyes watched her pack.

"It's not home anymore, Bon. Not for me. I've… I've outgrown this place."

"Outgrown us?" Stefan asked, pain in his eyes. Caroline shook her head rapidly.

"No, not that. I've outgrown the drama, and I think I've outgrown Elena… but you two? You're my friends for always. I'm a phonecall away and… you'll both realize that you can't stay here in stasis. Just like I did, just like Tyler did. You'll realize it, and when you do, come to New York. Visit me and I'll show you the world I've created there for myself, and then you can both go and find your own."

"I don't know any life but this one," Bonnie pointed out. "Leaving it is … frightening."

"Of course it is, because the rest of the world is unknown. But you're in your twenties and you're human, Bonnie. You need to grow up, we all do. And when you do, you're going to set the world on fire."

Bonnie hugged her tightly, and Caroline revelled in the sensation. This was good-bye, and it was a sad thought. She moved onto Stefan next, and he hugged her as well, then gave her a nod, because Stefan had lived longer, he knew that there was more than this out there. She only hoped he would let himself discover it again, because a love triangle with his brother? Stefan deserved better.

"Be safe?" Bonnie asked, and Caroline gave her a smirk.

"Please, Bon, I'm the Angel of Death. If anyone needs to be worried about being safe, it's the other guys."

More hugs with her mother followed, and she whispered in Liz's ear for her to keep an eye out on Bonnie and Stefan, and to help them move on when they were ready. Liz nodded, because if there had been one thing Caroline's new path had made her happy about, it was that her daughter got away from Mystic Fallls.

She got in the car with Enzo, started it up, and then they were gone again.

Her life was a series of transitions, Caroline was discovering. Loki had given her the guts to find her place in SHIELD. She had seen Klaus once and that encounter had given her the courage to let go of promises of last love and find the world on her own. Now it was time to let go of her last tie to the Caroline Forbes of old.

Mystic Falls was her past, a place that held her mother and a hundred memories… but no longer would it be her home.

**AN: And that's puts an end to the Mystic Falls chapter of Caroline's life. They know the truth, she doesn't have to live the double life anymore… and now she can continue to move on. Two more of these and I believe I will be beginning the full length Loki vs. Caroline story. **


	6. Entropy

**AN: A series of drabbles too short for their own chapter. They all take place after **_**Partner**_**, but before **_**I walked off the edge and into the ocean. **_**All of them have been posted to tumblr, except for **_**Loyalty**_** and **_**Klaus**_**, which, for now, are fanfiction exclusives. So feel special.**

**Entropy**

_Angel of Death_

The name, Angel of Death, was meant as a joke. It was Enzo's way of commenting on her ability to threaten. He claimed that no one, not even the Widow, could threaten like Caroline.

The first time she kills a man on a mission for SHIELD, she cries.

She manages to keep her tears hidden away through the commendations, Fury telling her she did good and the pats on the back. When she reaches her room, she breaks down and curls into a ball on her bed, because it's one thing to snap a neck in the heat of the moment, thinking it's the only way to save your friend, and quite another to purposely sight a man down the scope and make the decision to pull the trigger.

Enzo joins her, the only one who was able to see through her stoic expression, to see that her actions were breaking her. He sits at her side and holds her hand and lets her sob in his lap.

It was meant as a joke, but it becomes the last whisper on the lips of the enemies of SHIELD.

She never cries again, after that first time, but each and every time, Enzo is always there, holding her hand as she breaks a little more, and helping to put the pieces back in their rightful place.

_Jealousy_

She teases Enzo about being the brains of their duo. She finds it amusing, that the big bad vampire is really a scholar at heart. She hadn't expected it, and she knows that if Damon ever found out, Enzo wouldn't hear the end of it.

Then she remembers that Damon can never be allowed to find out, and she wonders what the people back home think they're doing, when they're not in Mystic Falls. She supposes it doesn't matter, but that doesn't stop the curiosity.

Enzo gets along amazingly with her father. She knows, that if Tony had his way, Enzo would be his dream man for her. He's smart, he cares about Caroline, and he looks to Tony as the master of all things technological. Caroline is happy, that Enzo is finding his place amongst the agency, and that her dad has been helping him find that place by expanding his knowledge by leaps and bounds, but she also has to admit to some jealousy.

She could never be that for her father. For all that she was Tony Stark's daughter, she never got the mechanics side of things. Even if she had, she wouldn't have pursued it. Caroline as a human would have worried about chipped nails.

Vampire Caroline just doesn't have the aptitude.

So, she's torn between happy and jealous every time she sees Tony and Enzo whispering together. They're working on a new suit, she knows. One that can utilize the power of the arc reactor without requiring Tony to have an arc reactor. Bruce sits in with them every now and then, and even Thor has offered up some ideas form the things he's seen in Asgard. Steve just shakes his head and mutters about electricity while Natasha and Barton just back away slowly and go back to admiring the weapons Enzo has been assisting in stream-lining.

It seems that Caroline is the only one left feeling jealous. Then again, she's the only one who's left wondering if her father doesn't wish she was more like Enzo.

Then they have a suit and they're taking it out for the first test drive and everything goes horribly, horribly wrong because the power fails. Thor isn't there and Bruce is somewhere else, speaking with Fury, so Tony is falling… falling…

Caroline doesn't even remember moving, but then she's in the air, and she's using her body as a shield between Tony and the unforgiving ground. She doesn't remember the landing, because the force snaps her neck, leaving her to darkness.

When she wakes up, Tony is sitting at her side, and he opens his mouth with fire in his eyes, ready to give her hell.

Caroline beats him to it.

"What were you thinking? You could have died. The suit doesn't make you invincible! The force would have crushed you and then… and then…"

Caroline is panicked, remembering his body falling helplessly, and for the first time Tony considers what her eternity means for their relationship. He will grow old and die, all but guaranteed to beat his daughter to the grave – as it should be – but she will never join him. She will live on, eternally seventeen, and she had just been forced to face his very real mortality.

"Enzo will go up in the suit next time," he tells her, grabbing her hand and squeezing. "We already talked about it. He's less breakable, so he'll do the test drives. Calm down, Care. I'm not going to die."

"I couldn't _do_ anything," Caroline whispers, a tear running out of her eye. "I don't get the stuff you guys talk about, computers and robots and the mechanics. I had no idea if the suit would work, and it didn't, and you could have _died_."

"But you saved me," Tony grins down at her, and it's his mature grin, the one just for her. "My little hero."

"I'm not ready for you to die," Caroline says, burying her face against his hair, and Tony's arms come up to hug her tightly. His grip is warm and reassuring and so very _there_, and she realizes that this is what she's needed for the past few weeks. For him to hug her and call him his hero, because Enzo could know everything there was to know about mechanics, but he would never know _this_, the comfort of being held by her dad.

And that was all she needed.

_Loyalty_

The first time Enzo saves her life they're in Berlin and somehow the target knows about vampires.

He's hired Hunters, talented Hunters, and they are prepared for her.

Caroline gets shot in the head, and that's the beginning of the flashbacks for her. Because these Hunters don't just want to kill her, they want to know why she's there. She's back in the cage, being tortured and taunted by Jules. She's back in the crypt, her step-father trying to fix her with sunlight. She's tied up by Alaric, being told she's a monster by the man she tried to comfort for Bill's murder, her words being thrown back into her face.

It was something she hadn't expected, the flashbacks, and they leave her feeling helpless and lost and like she's eighteen years old and a newbie vampire again.

Enzo manages to get control of their weapons – electronic UV rays, syringes of vervain set to timers, all sorts of high tech devices made for torturing vampires – and then comes in like her avenging angel and tears them all apart. It's one of the rare times where his bull-in-a-China-shop approach proves to be effective, and she's never been so happy to see him.

"They're going to start calling you the Techno Ripper, if you're not careful," Caroline says to him, when they've reached safety. She had completed the mission, killed the target, and now they sit next to each other back in New York, fingers laced tightly.

"For you I'd rip apart the very top brass of SHIELD," Enzo says simply, and Caroline squeezes his hand in recognition of this. They both enjoy their lives with SHIELD, are proud of their accomplishments, and would toss it all away in a second to save the other.

Caroline can remember days in Mystic Falls, planning the best way to keep Elena alive and thinks that they had all been such fools back then. She thought they'd been so loyal, that she'd known what friendship and loyalty was.

Friendship and loyalty wasn't dying for someone, it was killing for them.

Dying was easy.

_Klaus_

The first time Enzo meets Klaus he's just finished up a solo mission. It was an easy in and out, uploading a virus into a system to copy files, and he decides to stop and have a drink in celebration before returning to New York. He and Caroline have been partners for nearly a year and so he knows about Klaus – not every dirty detail, but enough to fill in the blanks that Damon's story left.

He doesn't know who the vampire that takes a seat across from him is at first. Not until he introduces himself.

"You're new around here, so I suppose you can be forgiven for not introducing yourself. But in the future, you should know it's good manners to meet the King before making yourself at home."

"I don't plan on making myself at home," Enzo replies easily, eyeing the blonde vampire across from him. He looks to be mid-twenties, but there's something about him that screams age and power. Enzo is old friends with power now, though, and he finds himself less than impressed. "Just stopping for a drink. Who are you?"

"The King you so rudely _didn't_ introduce yourself to." The man leans back and crosses his arms, eyeing Enzo belligerently.

The words remind Enzo of Caroline's warning about New Orleans, and he realizes that this is the infamous Hybrid. Some days, Enzo can't tell who left the more permanent mark on his girl – Klaus or Loki – but he knows that he dislikes them both on principle.

"Well, I'm just here for a few more hours, so we can remain unintroduced." Enzo's eyes dart over Klaus' shoulder, to where a man in a suit is watching them impatiently, and he smirks lightly at the Hybrid. "Looks like your lackey over there is wanting a word."

Enzo leaves while Klaus is glancing over his shoulder, towards the man at the bar, thinking that will be the end of it, but the Hybrid is faster than expected, and Enzo finds himself pinned to the wall just next to the door. Enzo curses in Russian under his breath, a habit he picked up from Natasha. He thinks that the this could be the end – not out on a mission as he'd expected his life to end, but rather out with a whimper at Klaus' hands – but instead the Hybrid leans in and…

_Sniffs him?_

"You smell like her. How do you know her?"

He means Caroline, of course. There could be no other her that would get this reaction from the Hybrid. Enzo knows his girl, knows the effect she has on the people around her, so he's not surprised that Klaus' eyes are dark and angry and thirsty for information about her. But he won't get it from Enzo.

"Answer me!" Klaus demands when Enzo remains silent, and Enzo just stares back. He's a SHIELD agent, and even if he weren't, he spent seventy years enjoying the hospitality of Augustine. There is nothing this man can do to him that hasn't already been done, that, most likely, will be done again. "Are you connected to her through that read headed harpy?"

Klaus had met Natasha, Enzo had forgotten that, and Enzo gives him a tight grin.

"Red headed harpy. I'll have to tell Nat you called her that."

"You're in my city, no one would stop me from killing you-"

"Caroline would never forgive you," Enzo cuts him off, hitting his weak spot with ease. "Would make it her life's mission to end you. And Caroline is nothing if not tenacious."

"You seem so very sure of that, even though I created her blood line."

"Doesn't matter," Enzo replies with a shrug. "She'd still do it. Just as I would for her. Let me go, Klaus. I'm not one of yours. I'm hers."

Klaus glares at him, not liking this news, and he's practically seething, but Enzo watches him with a calm expression, refusing to let himself be cowed.

"You and Loki, she does gain herself such interesting companions," he growls out, and Enzo feels a jolt of surprise.

"You met Loki?" he asks with surprise.

"You have not," Klaus responds, slowly releasing his grip on Enzo's neck.

"No, but I would have a few choice words for him if I did. Honestly, I'd have a few choice words for you as well, only I think she's said everything she needs to, to you."

Klaus fully releases his grip, giving Enzo a tiny shove towards the door.

"Perhaps," Klaus says enigmatically. "For now. When you see her again, tell her I say hello."

Enzo leaves, relieved his head is still attached to his neck, and making the silent decision to not pass Klaus' message onto Caroline. Nor will he mention this meeting to her.

_Engagement_

"I think I'm going to propose to her."

Caroline looks up from her book, a history of firearms that Natasha had given her for her birthday, and stares at her father. His gaze is zeroed in on Enzo and Pepper, who are huddled over something on a screen across the room. She sees Enzo's back stiffen, clearly he heard Tony's statement, but then he relaxes into one of his charming smirks when Pepper asks what's wrong and easily turns the subject around.

"That's a big step," Caroline murmurs, closing her book and sitting up from her lounge. She pats the cushion next to her, and Tony comes and sits, reaching down to grab her leg and pull them back up over his lap. She can remember sitting like this often as a little girl on the rare occasions she got to spend with Tony. He had been so charismatic and larger than life and Caroline hadn't yet been old enough to feel like a burden to him. Those had been easier times, but the ones they have now are better.

Her dad is growing up. He's being a dad, and now he's ready to take the leap.

"She's everything to me… well, everything that you don't already cover" – Tony smiles at her and ruffles her hair, and Caroline rolls her eyes and smooths it out because he knows how much she hates that – "and I guess, I don't see the point in not being married to her."

"You've been married to her for as long as I can remember," Caroline replies dryly, opening her book once more. "I'm glad you've finally caught up enough to make it official."

But despite her tone, there is a huge grin on her face, and they both know that she couldn't be happier for her father. Pepper is good for him. She makes him want to be better, and she keeps him in line. She's also great with Caroline, always has been, even when she was a pouting beauty queen brat with all of her father's vanity and none of his enormous genius.

Tony isn't the only one who's grown up.

"Do you have a ring?" she asks after trying to read again, but now the cat's been let out of the bag, and Caroline might be an Agent of SHIELD, but she's still Miss Mystic Falls, and she's already imagining the wedding. Soft colors, minimal pink so as not to clash with Pepper's hair. She'll have to talk her father out of arriving in the suit, because a traditional wedding is what would suit Pepper best. She's already designing the cake in her mind – three tiered with elegant black accents – when she catches her father's eye. He's smiling at her, an almost bittersweet smile that's at odds with his usual devil-may-care attitude. "What?"

"You're going into planning mode. It's a party, and you have to run it… I haven't seen you like this since – well, since you decided to become Agent Forbes. I guess I missed it a little bit. My control freak daughter."

"I'm still a control freak," Caroline replied, hitting him lightly on the arm with her book. "Just ask Enzo. In fact, I've probably even gotten worse. Not only do I arrange _my_ closet by style and color, but I've arranged his _and_ Natasha's. I tried to do it to Barton's, but he threatened to blow me up. And Maria Hill told me she'd never had a birthday party as well arranged as the one I threw for her three months ago."

Tony snorts at that, and Caroline is somewhat relieved to see his usual expression back on his face. Maudlin doesn't suit Tony Stark, doesn't suit their relationship.

"Well, I'll ask you now before you blow up – Caroline Forbes, will you plan my wedding?"

Caroline is ready to squeal and say yes, because _duh_ she'll plan the wedding, but she's a SHIELD agent now, and that means maintaining a certain level of poise, even behind closed doors.

"You should probably ask Pepper if there will be a wedding _to_ plan," she replied with a sniff and a raised nose. Tony smiles at her and ruffles her hair again before pushing her legs off his lap and getting up.

"Your grandmother's ring," he said pausing on his way over to the bar. "I thought I'd use that."

And damn agent poise, because that news makes Caroline's eyes well with tears. She's seen that ring. It's beautiful and elegant and so very, very Pepper. She sniffles and subtly wipes her fingers under eyes. She shoots a glare at Enzo, who is snickering at her over Pepper's shoulder and buries her face back in her book.

Her daddy's getting married. She's allowed to get a little emotional.

**AN: And there you go. **_**Loyalty**_** has been referenced in the previous two stories, as the events of Berlin. There was apparently some confusion. When Loki references it, he says that he may have to thank **_**Enzo**_**, because he saved Caroline. Some people seemed to think that he meant that Klaus saved her. That is not the case.**


End file.
